









i 



WIIiLARD'S 



HISTORY OF GREENFIELD 



Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit. 

Perhaps the time may come, when the recollection, 
even of these things, will be pleasing. 

Virgil. 



A THING OF SHREDS AND PATCHES. 



GREENFIELD : 

KNEELAND & EASTMAN. 

1838. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the office of the 

Clerk of the District Court of Massachusetts, 

in 1838, by D. Willard. 



PREFACE. 

Reader, please to read the preface. 

This work was prepared for publication 
more than a year since, (in July 1837,) and 
its delay has been owing" to circumstances be- 
yond my power to control. If my short purse 
had been more frequently honored with the 
visits of the glittering" coin, (or even despised 
bank bills,) which have been too much like 
those of angels, few, &c. the case would have 
been different. The establishment of a new 
press afforded the opportunity of offering it 
to my fellow townsmen, the publishers volun- 
teering its publication on fair terms, requiring 
no security, (which means entangling one's 
friends,) beyond the subscription list. 

The humble and unpretending character of 
compilations of this kind, generally ensures to 
them a protection against criticism : were it 
not so, the circumstances under which this 
has been put together, will to every ingenuous 
mind, excuse its defects and disarm criticism. 
It has been prepared while visited with severe 
family sickness, and suffering under many pri- 
vations — almost sufficient to paralyze exertion ; 
surrounded by a little flock of roistering urchins 
— mere striplings, incessantly shouting and 
throwing up their caps in irrepressible and 
boisterous glee, and viewing every object on 
the sunny side. Little know they of the cor- 
roding cares of a parent's heart ; " of the load 
of life which we are doomed to bear :" the 
anxieties which are continually draining the 
well springs of life. Happy, if age shall con- 



IV PREFACE. 

firm the promises of youth : if the future shall 
realize to them a moiety of its visions, and if 
one of a thousand of the painted bubbles which 
now float in their imaginations, shall live, 
while others burst and fade away in darkness 
— and " happy, in my mind, was he that 
died." 

I am indebted to Dr. S. W. Williams, Geo. T. 
Davis and J. C. Alvord, Esqrs. for valuable pa- 
pers, and to them and others for liberal patron- 
age and encouragement in my humble labors, 
which have cheated life of hours otherwise 
given to care and despondency. What I re- 
gret more than any thing except the indiscre- 
tions and imprudence of some years of life, is, 
that the same leanness of purse before alluded 
to, prevents my placing in this Book, a plate 
of Turner's Falls. Non possum. 

If after a candid examination, the purchaser 
is dissatisfied because the work does not come 
up to his ideas, or contain all promised in the 
prospectus (some articles have been omitted) 
and finds no redeeming portions, he may as 
Yankees do, contrive by " a swop," or other 
means, to get as much out of the next man he 
meets, as he deems himself to have lost in this 
outlay, and I assure him that " with honest 
intention I've taken him in." As for the 
censorious, and those who always are, and 
delight in, finding fault, having no desire to 
suit them, I have no expectation that I shall 
do so. 

Oct. 22, 1838, 



TO 



HETVRTT WELLS CLAPP. 

As by your suggestion and liberal patronage, 
this imperfect History of a Town whose inte- 
rests your means and enterprise have promo- 
ted, was undertaken, to you it is respectfully 
dedicated. 

D. W. 



The Town of Gp.eenfield, Franklin County, Massa- 
chusetts, is one of those pleasant and beautiful towns 
with which the Connecticut river valley abounds. It is 
about ninety miles west from Boston, 75 East from 
Albany, and nearly in a line between the two : is 40 
north of Springfield— 20 from Northampton, 20 S. from 
Brattleboro, Vermont. Bounded north by Bernardston, 
S. by Deerfield, KJ. by Connecticut and Fall rivers — is 
about one mile from the confluence of Green and Deer- 
field rivers — two from that of the Deerfield and Connec- 
ticut. The character of the scenery around is pictu- 
resque and inviting : — of its buildings, that of neatness 
and comfort — some partake of elegance without and 
within. IJere are men with hearts and without hearts ; 
the poor are not forgotten : and hospitality and good 
neighborhood abound. 



- 



Population in 1837— 1840. Increase since 1830, 290. 
Polls 440. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAP. I. 

Period prior to Incorporation. Notice of the Indians- 
First Occupants. Grants. Deerfield. Seating Meet- 
ing House. Mode of Fortifying. 
CHAP. II. 
Green river stream granted. — Titles to land — how ob- 
tained. Green river people's petition., Indian warfare. 
Anecdote of O. Atherton. Forts — petition renewed, 
bounds of town stated. Schools. Committee's report 
on South line, and location of Meeting House. — 23. 
CHAP. III. 
Record of first meeting, &c. Minister. Wages. Roads. 
Indians. Meeting House. Sequestered Lands. Dif- 
ficulties with the Mother Town. — 36. 
CHAP. IV. 
Revolutionary Times and Incidents. Anecdotes of Benja. 
Hastings. Agrippa Wells. Samuel Hinsdale. Act 
against monopoly and oppression — prices of articles 
stated. Counterfeiting. Judge Havvley. Tariff of 
prices. Depreciation of currency. — 52. 

CHAP. V. 
Insurrection under Daniel Shays. Anecdotes. — 75. 
CHAP. VI. 
Great sickness of 1802. Political Parties. Difficulties 
respecting location of new Meeting House — Division 
of the town petitioned for. Ministerial. — 90. 
CHAP. VII. 
Ecclesiastical History. — 99. 
CHAP. VIII. 
Extracts from the Diary of Rev. R. Newton. — 121. 
CHAP. IX. 
Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of men of Olden 
Times. Phi His and Jack. Col. Moore and his busi- 
ness — Mill — Counterfeiting. Raisings — Uncle David 
— his Courtship. Huskings, &c. 8tc. &c. &c. 
CHAP. X. 
Lawyers. Physicians. Graduates. — 161. 
CHAP. XI. 
Notice of the Early Traders. Manufactories. News- 
papers. Mails and Stages. High Schools. Schools. 
Banks. Scenery. Turner's Falls. Witches.— 170. 



HISTORY 

OF 

GREENFIELD. 

CHAPTER I. 

Period prior to incorporation. Indians. First Occupants. 
Grants. Deerfield. Sundry particulars. Schools. 
Taxes. Grain. 

Of so recent occurrence, in the history of the human 
race, is every event or circumstance, connected with 
that of our own country, particularly so, those of any 
individual town, that although the historian of the whole 
country finds much to record of a most instructive and 
interesting character, it is not to be expected that much 
can be embraced in the annals of a small district 
not five miles square, and not deemed of sufficient con- 
sequence to be incorporated at an earlier date than 1753. 
Eighty-five years ; nay not so much : that term is not 
fully complete and ended : not so long a term as is allot- 
ted to many an individual of our short lived race. 

Here is surely little scope for indulging the excursions 
of fancy : to the lover of romance or novelty, the repast 
to be furnished is dry and uninviting ; too much 
like the apple of Sodom, which though presenting an 
agreeable exterior to the eye, contains nothing better 
within than dust and ashes. 

The settlers at Plymouth and the neighboring country, 
became acquainted with the region bordering the Con- 
necticut, by means of adventurers who sailed up the 
stream and from the reports of the Indians. The Gover- 
2 



10 HISTORY OF 

nor of Plymouth sent persons to examine the river and land 
on its banks. They found it partially cleared, and in sit- 
uations favorable the natives cultivated corn and other 
esculents. The streams abounded with fish and the for- 
ests with game. The moose, deer, bears, wolves, bea- 
ver, otter, fox, with many other wild animals held pos- 
session of the territory in common with the Indian, and 
neither levied contributions from the ranks of the other, 
of more than his necessities required. Immense flocks 
of pigeons tenanted the woods, and innumerable water- 
fowl enlivened the banks of the streams. 

Prior to 1753, this town formed a part of Deerfield, 
the first settlement of which commenced in 1671. A 
company of men in Dedham had obtained a grant of 
8000 acres on Pocomptuc river ; the northern boundary 
of the tract forms the north line of that town ; a sub- 
sequent grant of seven miles square included the pres- 
ent town of Greenfield. Truth, tradition, or fiction, 
reports those who went out to view the lands, to have 
said to the people of Dedham, on their return, among 
other things, after describing the excellent character of 
the soil, &c. " Providence led us to that place. It is 
indeed far away from our plantations, and the CanaaniUs 
and the Amalekites dwell in that valley, and if they have 

Note. In 1633. The Plymouth Colony found the 
Dutch settled at Hartford. Springfield was settled 1636, 
by a company from Roxbury. In 1639, the first printing 
press in North America was set up at Cambridge. 

In 1633 the country on the Connecticut began to attract 
attention, several vessels went into the river this year to 
trade ; several persons from Dorchester had travelled 
westward as far as the Connecticut river and noticed sev- 
eral places eligible for settlement. The jealousy of the 
parent country, or rather of its arbitrary monarch, was 
thus early excited and an order was issued by the privy 
council to stay several ships in the Thames, freighted 
with passengers and provisions ; great numbers however 
during the year came over. — Holmes. 



GREENFIELD. 11 

any attachment to any spot on earth, must delight to live 
there. But that land must be ours. Our people have 
resolute and pious hearts and strong hands, to overcome 
all difficulties. Let us go and possess the land, and in 
a few years you will hear more boast of it in this colony, 
as a land good for flocks and herds, than could ever be 
justly said of the land of Goshen, or any part of the 
Land of Canaan." * f 

Whether such language as the foregoing was used by 
these men or, whether they entertained such ideas or not — 
one thing is certain, that in too many instances the na- 
tives were defrauded, shamefully defrauded and imposed 
upon by the settlers of the country : that the principle 
' The good old rule, the simple plan, 
That they should take who have the power, 
And they should keep who can, 5 

was at that day and is now, too generally the rule of ac- 
tion. Of this, the observation and experience of almost 
every one, afford painful examples, and that too in some, 
who profess to be under the blessed influence of our 
Holy Religion. The character of our pilgrim fathers, 
those stern and hardy men, upon which so many of us 
delight to dwell, which is the theme of praise for many a 
writer, suffers in some respects by a comparison with that 
of the sons of the forest, with only the light of Nature to 
guide them, without science and almost without art. 
These men never punished for witchcraft nor for matter 
of opinion. 

J A deed of part of the grant, made to John Pynch- 
eon for the use of the English at Dedham, by Chauk or 
Chague, Sachem of Pocomptuc and his brother, Wassa- 

* This grant contained a proviso that an Orthodox 
minister should be settled within three years, and a farm 
of 250 acres be laid out for the Country's use. This is 
said to have been laid at what is called " Country Farms," 

t Worthington's History of Dedham. 

X Hoyt's Antiq. Res. 






12 HISTORY OF 

hoale, is extant, dated Feb. 24, 1665, — prior to the Gov- 
ernment grant, Capt. Pyncheon procured four deeds from 
the Indians for which the proprietors of Dedham paid 
£94,10. The first named deed was witnessed by We- 
quonnock, " who helped the sachem in making the bar- 
gain." This deed reserves to the Indians, the right of 
fishing in the rivers or waters : hunting deer or other 
wild animals : gathering walnuts and other nuts and 
things on the commons. 

As no part of this territory was included in these pur- 
chases, it does not appear thit the Indians received any 
compensation for it, but from circumstances, it has been 
presumed they did. 

Time has shown that the longer their residence in the 
vicinity of the white man continued, the more vicious 
and corrupt they became, and that they were almost inva- 
riably the objects, or subjects of his fraud and imposi- 
tion. From the first settlement of the whites among 
them, they have constantly been dwindling in numbers : 
they continue to be driven farther and still farther tow- 
ards the setting sun, by the restless flow of emigration 
and the cupidity of white men ; their habits are unsocial 
and altogether averse to those of civilized life. An Indi- 
an wants no splendid mansion, nor elegant furniture, nor 
bed of down ; he will not learn to manufacture a button 
or a jewsharp, or to drive a team ; he wants no woik- 
shop, he can " catch no beaver there." The forest is 
his home, and his delight is in the chase and by the river 
side. • Nature has so taught him, and before he became 
contaminated by a proximity to, and dealing with the 
white man, he lived according to her dictates. But 
the time is now rapidly approaching when the race shall 
be utterly extinct and annihilated. 

The war whoop shall soon no longer be heard, neither 
by forest, nor hill, nor stream ; no longer shall the Indian 
want the right of fishing in the rivers, or gathering nuts 
on the commons, or hunting deer in the woods ; the 



GREENFIELD. 13 

stately form of the son of Nature shall soon no longer 
be seen in any part of the land ; the besom of des- 
truction is fast sweeping him away from the home of his 
youth and the grave of his fathers. The whiteman 
wants his land, and will have it. 

Who is there to mourn for Logan ? not one.* 
Our ancestors denounced the natives as savage bar- 
barians. They committed no offences without provoca- 
tion, and in the long black catalogue of crimes committed 
in Christian nations, but few, comparatively are found to 
occur among this uncivilized race Is ingratitude among 
the number of their sins? The most eminent and glori- 
ous examples of the opposite are upon record. Was an 
Indian ever guilty of suicide, seduction, fraud, scandal, 
and innumerable other sins ? Did an Indian ever sell 
wooden nutmegs, cucumber seeds, horn flints or pow- 
der, under pretence that by planting it would produce, 
its like 1 While he may take your life in war, or 
torture you as his victim, he would disdain to persecute 
you for opposing his favorite opinions, to take away your 
reputation for revenge, or defraud you of your property, 
which you might value equally with life. 

The civilized man will exert all the power over you 
which the Law will give him, oftentimes more ; and if 
you stand in his way or incur his resentment, his tender 
mercies are often cruel compared with the tomahawk, 
which destroys at a blow and all is over. Subjected as 
many are to obloquy and the persecutions of society— 
their death is slow and lingering— while the Indian tor- 

* See the Story of Logan, a Mingo Chief by Jefferson. 

Note On the first arrival of the English in Pennsyl- 
vania, messengers from the Conestogo Indians, came to 
welcome them, with presents of Venison, corn and skins ; 
and the whole tribe entered into a treaty of friendship 
with the first proprietor, William Penn, which was to 
ast "as long as the sun should shine, or the waters run 

2* 



14 HISTORY OF 

turea the body only. There can be little doubt that more 
acta of cruelty have been committed on this continent 
by the French, Spanish and English, or by their instiga- 
tion, than by the natives. 

What think you attached them to this section ? Was 
it merely the rich soil of the meadows 1 No, — the riv- 
ers literally swarmed with fish ; the salmon and the shad ;* 
the hills and the plains were stocked with wild game. 
1 The Gael of vale and river heir, 
Will with strong hand redeem his share.' 

Have I drawn too dark a picture of the while man, 
the boasted lover of liberty and equality and the rights 
of man, and too light a one of the dark savage 1 — 
There are exceptions and redeeming qualities, where the 
mild and beneficent spirit of the Christian religion has 
had its due influence upon the mind. 

The dislike of the Indians to laborious employments 
— their love of a wandering life, vices acquired by their 
intercourse with white men, diminution of means of liv- 
ing by the disappearance of game caused by the en- 
croachments of civilization — these causes proved suffi- 

in the rivers." This treaty has been since frequently 
renewed and the chain brightened as they express it, 
from time to time, as their lands were by degrees mostly 
purchased and the settlements of the white people began 
to surround them, the proprietor assigned them lands on 
the manor of Conestogo, which they might not part 
with ; there they have lived many years in friendship 
with their white neighbors, who loved them fjr their 
peaceable, inoffensive behaviour. It has al -vays been ob- 
served, that Indians settled in the neighborhood of white 

* Thousands of shad have been taken in a day within 
the memory of some now living, at the Falls near Rus- 
sell's Factory, with scoop nets and seines, and sold for a 
penny — sometimes a copper apiece. The erection of 
dams on the river has long since lessened the numbers 
which pass up the river. 



GREENFIELD. 15 

cient to produce the decline of their race. These have 
been operating gradually, but constantly for 200 years. 

In the midst of such a people, whose habits and ways 
of living were unsocial and every way unconnected with 
almost every object associated with the ideas the settlers 
had formed of beauty or utility, decency, propriety 
or the fitness of things, with an entire ignorance of 
all the arts and blandishments of civilized li!e, and a 
temper at war with it : the immediate ancestors of many 
now residing in this town and vicinity, set themselves 
down, intending to maintain all the institutions of culti- 
vated society. Before and behind and all around them 
an almost interminable forest was spread out. The wild 
beasts here had their home and homesteads, their dwel- 
ling and pasture ground. Not a trace -of them is now 
to be found. Every where they have faded away with 
the Indian and his wigwam, — while the step of the 
white man is onward, still onward, still encroaching upon 
the limits* of the Indian and the Deer, far away towards 
the setting sun. 

' Look now abroad ; another race has filled 

These populous borders ; wide the wood recedes 

And towns shoot up, and fertile realms are tilled ; 
The land is full of harvests and green meads ; 
The full region leads 

New colonies forth, that toward the western seas 

Spread like a rapid flame among the autumnal trees.' 

An elegant writer, treating more particularly of the 
Indians of the " Six' Nations" of the State of New 
York, attributes to them traits of character of the no- 
blest kind, and gives it as his opinion that no nation, 

people do not increase, but diminish continually. This 
tribe accordingly went on diminishing, till there remained 
in their town on the manor but 20 persons. — Works fyc. 
of Franklin by Sparks, Vol. 4, 

These were inhumanly butchered by a band of desper- 
adoes in the year 1763, without provocation. 



16 HISTORY OF 

since the time of the Romans, have cultivated Oratory 
to the same extent and with the same success. Their 
conceptions are strong and vigorous, their metaphors and 
imagery, bold and impressive, and every name given by 
them to inanimate objects or to one another, has a dis- 
tinctive meaning in its application. 

In war or peace ; in the midst of change and revolu- 
tion, near or remote, they have remained like the Jews, 
a distinct people ; and it requires wiser heads than ours 
to see the justice of that policy, which, while it offers 
home and protection to foreigners of all nations, seems 
to pursue a system any other than protective of the na- 
tives, the rightful inhabitants of the soil. The weak, 
the defenceless and the poor have ever suffered from the 
encroachments of the strong, the powerful and the rich, 
and always will, as poverty is taken as presumptive evi- 
dence of want of merit ; almost of actual guilt. In the 
history of these nations and their decline, as well as the 
settlement of our ancestors in this country, we have a 
display of the mysterious d ->ings of that Providence, 
"which shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will," 
unfathomable and inscrutable ; and that the leading and 
guiding hand of that Providence is distinctly to be traced 
in all me events connected therewith, I make no manner 
of doubt. 

" The wind bloweth where it listeth ; thou nearest the 
sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor 
whither it goeth." Great and wise ends were to be an- 
swered by the peopling of this vast continent, capable of 
supporting millions more than it did, and affording a 
home for the surplus population of Europe ; but from 
this cannot be drawn an argument to justify the innu- 
merable acts of oppression and knavery which took 
place in consequence. 

The conduct of the enlightened and virtuous William 
Penn affords an illustrious example of the course which 
reason and religion dictates in relation to the natives. 



GREENFIELD. 17 

But he was a quaker, and the pilgrims could not endure 
them. 

The situation in which the colonists found themselves, 
their common privations, wants and hopes, and dangers, 
necessarily led to an intimate connexion and union 
among themselves, to which is perhaps attributable the 
peculiar characteristics for which they were, and their 
posterity still are, distinguished. Perseverance, un- 
yielding fortitude, resolution, unwavering faith and cour- 
age were leading and prominent traits in their character. 

As this town formed a part of Deerfield, extracts are 
here taken from the records of that town so far as they 
are applicable. 

1686. The first notice to be found of the occupation 
of any part of this town by an individual is, that a tract 
of Land of 20 acres was granted to a Mr. Brooks on 
Green River. Here tradition comes to our aid, and lo- 
cates his dwelling near the Bakery of Mr. George P. 
Field. The well at the next house, Mr. Eli Fisk's, is 
suppposed to be the first one dug. The grants made 
sub-equent to this when the Village Lots were laid out, 
comprised but a few acres. It seems from record, as by 
tradition, that the Grantees of that period were not very 
exact and particular in defining their bounds for perma- 
nancy, or otherwise. For instance, the great public road 
from Northampton, in this direction is said to have 

been described as bounded at one place on s Oat 

trough. The Stage road from Deerfield, North, through 
this town, the record of which, may be found, copied, 
in the appendix, bounds on Aaron Denio's barn. What 
should we think at this day of a deed of a valuable piece 
of Land, defined after this manner, — at one corner 

where s, old white horse died, — at another by a 

great pile of rails, — or the following, which speculators 
at the present day would like well, " so far round as the 
good land goeth," which we are informed made a part of 
the description in a deed of land in this vicinity. Of 



18 HISTORY OF 

some Land, however, it is said, that the more a man has 
of it, the poorer he is. 

The same year, (1686,) Grants of 20 acre lots were 
made to John Allyn and Edward Allyn, on the condition 
of their paying taxes &c, and to Joseph and Robert 
Goddard on the like terms, 

In 1687, Giants of twenty acre lots were made to 
Jeremiah Hull, 
Ebenr. Wells, 
*Samuel Smead, 
Nathl. Brooks, Grant renewed, 
Philip Mattoon, 
G. & R. Goddard, 
Nathl. Cooke, 
|John & Edw. Allyn. 
" A record of the home Lots, up Green River, the 
South side of the Street to begin at the West end Ebcn- 

* William Smead came to Deerfield as early as 1684. 
The family is of Welsh descent. One of this name 
was killed in Lathrop , s battle in 1675, and was probably 
a descendant of William Smead who settled in Dorches- 
ter in 1658. From these have descended, as is said, all 
the families of that name in this part of the country, 
probably all of that name, in the U. States. They have 
always maintained a highly respectable standing in this 
town, and some Of them have held important public stations. 

f These were the sons of Edward Allyn, one of the 
principal men from Watertown who settled in Dedham 
and wrote the first records of that town. His lot extend- 
ed from the High School at the present bounds of the 
Street as far down perhaps as Mr. Mark's house, — but 
this is uncertain. He was the ancestor of Mr. Amos 
Allen of Shelburn, and the late much respected Mr. Q. 
Allen. Edward Allen's house was where the High 
School stands ; it was built of heavy hewn logs — was a 
fort and a public house. Rev. Mr. Newton lived there 
soon after he was settled — afterwards Mr. Bound, a Ba- 
ker. Mr. N. sold the Lot to Wm. Colman Esq. for about 
$1500. 



GREENFIELD. 19 

ezer Wells 1st, and David Hoyt the 2d, Wm. Brooks 
the 3d and 4th,* Edward Allyn 5th. The rest on that 
side not taken up. On the north side to begin on the 
West end. Samuel Smead the 1st, the Mill Lot 2d, 
Josiah and Robert Goddard's 3d and 4th, John Sever- 
ance 5th, Jeremiah Hall 6th, John Allyn 7th. There 
were 20 Lots laid out." 

Many of these Giants were forfeited. The condi- 
tion annexed to all of them was, that the Grantees 
should continue three years as residents alter they be- 
came 21 years of age, pay taxes, and their proportion 
of the Indian purchase. The Indians received what 
they perhaps considered an equivalent — and it has been 
said that they received all it was worth ; one thing seems 
certain, that whether it was worth any more than the 
price paid, to the settlers in its then state or not, it was 
in reality so to the Indians. 

1695. The f Green River Lands, by a vote of the 
proprietors, were allowed to go rate free, — the town rate 
of Deeifield was made payable in " pork and corn, good 
and merchantable. " 

169S. A vote was passed in reference to Schools 
by which those who had children between the ages of 
6 and 10 years, were compelled to pay whether they sent 
them or not, and those of over ten and under six paid 
only for the time of attending. At this time the former 
mode of raising money for town charges was changed, 
and they concluded, " to raise said rates by way of ap- 
praisal this year, of all rateable estate, and a committee 
was chosen, whose work was to appraise all rateable es- 
tate upon these rules, according to their best judgment 
and contrivance. 

* Opposite Mr. Elihu Severance's, still called the Hoyt 
Lot. 

t Called by the Indians, Picomegan or the boring 
river. 



20 HISTORY OF 

m Lands not exceeding £2 per acre and so to descend 
downwards, descending or proportion to ye rate having 
respect to distance of Lands from home and as for good- 
ness what it is naturally and not by industry. Stock, 
an ox at £6, Cow £2, Horse .£3, the first and so to de- 
scend downwards according to age and goodness. 
Rateable swine not fatning, 10s first, and descend as 
aforesaid ; rateable sheep at 5s the first and so on &c. 

In 1699, thirty acres of land each, were granted to 
Samuel Root and Joseph Petty on Green River. To 
Michael Mitchell 30 acres and a homelot of 4. 

Jonathan Wells and others were chosen a committee 
to view all Grants upon Green River, and to " condemn 
such Grants as are in their own nature condenmable." 

Bird Law. Every householder shall kill 12 black- 
birds apiece this summer or else what they shall want of 
such number, shall pay — pence apiece in ye town rate 
and wha«t they shall kill above said number shnll receive 
of the Town — pence apiece until last of May, after, 
till middle Sept., one half pence ; crows 4d. 

Mill. Joseph Parsons of Northampton had obli- 
gated himself to set up a corn mill, where there was a 
saw mill, fit to grind before the last of May 1 693. Toll 
allowed him, one 12th of all grain except wheat, and 
barley malt ; one 14th part of provender, one 18th part 
of bailey malt. At a meeting held Aug. 1699, he re- 
quested liberty to set up a corn mill on Green River, 
which was granted for one year. At a subsequent meet- 
ing, a Committee was chosen to confer with Mr. P. con- 
cerning a corn mill built by him in D. whether he will 
adhere to the bargain and keep his mill in good repair 
or give it up into the hands of the town. 

Dec. 4. A committee was chosen, Lt. Hoit, Lt. 
John Sheldon, Thomas French, whose work was to 
state the bounds of Green River Town Plot. 

The prices of Grain between man and man were 
stated — Summer wheat 4s, Rye 3s, snd Corn 2s. 



GREENFIELD. 21 

Grants of Land of 30 acres each, on Green River, 
, to Martin Kellogg, Zeb. Williams, John Severance. 

Seating the Meeting House. — In 1701, a vote is 
found upon record for the honored and aristocratic cer- 
emony of seating the meeting house. "The fore-seat 
in the front Gallery be equal in dignity with 2d seat in. 
the body of the meeting house. Foreseats in side Galle- 
ry equal in dignity to 4th seat in the body. Second seat 
in front Gallery and hinder seat in same to 5th in the 
body," and all this in a small meeting house, which most 
likely was made of Logs. 

They opened their common fields about the 1st Oc- 
tober, near a month earlier than is done at this day. — 
Town charges paid in produce. Rye 3s. Barley 3s. 
Oats Is. 

March, 1700. — -The following is found on the same 
records:— "Notwithstanding persons have taken up 
several home lots upon Green River, under the sum of 
8 acres apiece, yet, now the town hath hereby granted 
that all persons that have taken up lands, shall have 8 
acres apiece in their home lots." 

It was about these days that the people voted that 
every swine of 14 in. hie, found on the common fields, 
(after they were opened)should be liable to be impounded 
and the owners fined six pence per head, and to pay 
their school master $25 a year in grain. 

In 1703, the town of Deerfield was destroyed by the 
- French and Indians, under De Rouville. Great num- 
bers were killed or carried away captive, among whom 
we find the names of Hinsdel, Hastings, Nims, Smead, 
Brooks, Corse, Denio, Wells. 

This was in the reign of Anne, Queen of England, 
with whom the French were at war, and the French set- 
tlers in Canada, took the liberty of instigating the Indi- 
ans to join them, and bring trouble upon these border 
settlers, who had never troubled them. The Indians 
would have never thought of stirring in this matter, but, 
3 



22 HISTORY OF 

for these Frenchmen. The total population of the state 
was then estimated at 70,000, and that of Connecticut 
at 30,000, and the French population of Canada proper 
at only about 8500— Militia 1000. 

A detailed and interesting account of the destruction 
of Deerfield at this period, may be found in Hoyt's 
Antiq. Researches, Chapt, xi. The force consisted of 
200 French and 140 Indians. As at, probably, a later 
period, several forts were maintained in this village — 
the following description from that work may not be 
unacceptable to some readers who do not possess it : — 

" The mode of fortifying in the frontier towns at this 
time was rude and imperfect, calculated merely for de- 
fence against slight attacks. In many cases single 
houses were surrounded with palisades of cleft or hewn 
timber planted perpendicular in the ground without ditch- 
es, and the larger works enclosing villages, were much 
of the same nature. In some cases single houses were 
constructed of square timber laid horizontally, and lock- 
ed at the angles, and loop holes were pierced on every 
side for fireing upon an enemy. The walls of framed 
houses were commonly lined with brick, the upper sto- 
ry projected, and loop holes prepared to fire down upon 
the enemy in case of a close approach, &c. A work 
called a mount, was often erected at exposed points. — 
These were a kind of elevated block house affording a 
view of the neighboring country, and where they were 
wanting, sentry boxes were generally placed on the 
roofs of houses." 

For a succession of years the records of the country 
and the records of tradition furnish little or nothing com- 
ing within our province. The number of inhabitants in 
this section of the country was then comparatively very 
small, and occupied, as they must have been, in the 
clearing of lands and making preparations for future 
comfort ; harrassed by calls for military service, and the 
occasional incursions of Indians, little chance was af- 



GREENFIELD. 23 

forded for the acquisition of property by the cultivation 
of the land, or in any other way. All their energies 
must have been, of necessity, constantly exerted for sup- 
port and defence. Many of the young men were cut off 
by the wars and by diseases, and any other than a hardy 
and persevering race of men, fearless and determined, 
would have abandoned the contest with so much of pri- 
vation and insecurity. 

Rye had been for some time cultivated. In 1633, 
the first specimen of it was brought to the Court of Mas- 
sachusetts as the first fruits of English grain. This 
" poor people," says Johnson, an early writer, " greatly 
rejoiced to see the land would bear it." 

Note. — 1704. The Boston News Letter, the first 
newspaper published in America, was issued this year. 
In 1685, in the reign of James the 2d. the first Postmas- 
ter of New England, Mr. Randolph, was appointed by 
the Lord Treasurer Rochester. The first Post Office 
was established in 1710. In 1717, the trade of this state 
employed 3493 sailors— 492 ships, making 25,406 tons. — 
Duty on English goods, one per cent. 



CHAPTER II. 



PRIOR TO INCORPORATION. 



Green River stream granted — Titles to land how obtain- 
ed — Indians — Green River people's petition to be set 
off — Granted — Boundaries — Indian warfare — Forts — 
Petition renewed, granted, bounds stated — Commit- 
tees report on south line, and locating Meeting House. 

1713-14 — In January a grant was made by the pro- 
prietors to Capt. Wells, of the Green River Stream, to 



24 history or 

set up a mill on the following conditions : — " The said 
Wells shall take for his toll the 14th part of Rye, the 
16th part of wheat, the 12th part of corn, and other 
grain not specified ; and by Michaelmas day they are to 
give said Wells fifty pounds more of money." The 
town reserved the privilege of setting a saw mill upon 
the same stream, " provided workmen of that occupa- 
tion judge that a saw mill may be built there without 
damage to the corn mill ; said Wells having the first of- 
fer of a place for a saw mill, and he restore the town his 
liberty to grant it to other men, they agreeing with said 
Capt. Wells upon such terms as indifferent men shall 
judge proper." 

Mill. — " The town of Greenfield doe hereby grant un- 
to sd Jona. Wells and to his heirs ye stream aforesaid so 
long as they shall maintain a corn mill upon it to doe ye 
towns work, notwithstanding ye town doth reserve to 
themselves a liberty to set a saw mill upon ye same 
stream provided workmen of ye occupation together wt 
a committee chosen by the town for ye purposo doe 
judge yt a saw mill may bee built there without any con- 
siderable damage to ye corn mill ; he ye said Wells hav- 
ing the first offer of ye place for saw mill, &c. (not to be 
rated for said mill for town charges.") 

" Articles of agreement made and concluded be- 
tween Capt. Jona. Wells of D. Co. of H. in her 
majesties province of Ms. bay in New England on 
1 part and the T of Deerfield. 
Witnesses, *bl. barnard, th. ffrench, 

' MERCY CHILDS. Slglld. ELIEZER HAWKS, 

THOS. W r ELLS, 

1715. They voted to build a dam for Capt. J. Wells. 
The presumption is that a dam had been carried away 
by this mad stream, subject to sudden rise and irritation 
from small cause ; it often has such freaks now. 

1718. Green River grants. At a town Meeting in 
March, the proprietors appointed a committee to make 



GREENFIELD. 25 

proposals to the town in order to the settlement of lands 
on Green River. Their report follows : — 

11 That whereas there Been formerly severall grants of 
lands unto particular persons on ye Green River, and 
no place mentioned where it shall be laid out, we do 
therefore propose that Jeremiah Hull, Samuel Smead, 
Wm. Brooks, Jos. Goddard, Robt. Goddard, John Sev- 
erance, John Allyn, Edward Allyn, Benony More, Jo- 
seph Petty, Peter Evans, Michael Mitchell, Ebenezer 
Severance, Martin Kellogg, Zeb. Williams, have their 
grants laid out beginning at a brook called Brooks's 
brook, running from ye Green River westwardly, to ye 
swamp and so in breadth to make up their complement." 

A committee was appointed to lay out said grants, " to 
Brooks 1st, the rest, above and below, as near as can be 
to places where said men pretend it should be." Com- 
monage was to be allotted them in lands adjacent, pro- 
portioned to other proprietors ; to build mansion houses 
on their lots on the town plat, within two years, and live 
on said lands three years, and if driven off by the Indians, 
a further time "of five years was allowed them to make 
good their title. All having lands laid out west of Green 
River, were to maintain a fence sufficient to prevent 
cattle, &c. from crossing. 

1719. A vote passed to lay out a road up the river 
to the Country farms.* 

1720. It was voted to « build a new Scow on Town's 
charge, provided yt ye mill men, Cheapside or Green 

* In the act granting the Township of Deerfield in 1673, 
a condition was that they should lay out a farm of 250 
acres for the « country's use." What now is, and from 
early times has been, called country farms, in the N. W. 
part of the town, formed a part of it, and the road to it 
turned in at the gate beyond the house of Thos. Nims, 
Esq. What was first called the Country farms was a 
tract of land running east and west across the town, 
bounding north on Bernardston and Leyden ; Captain 
Larabee now owns part of it. 
3* 



26 HISTORY OF 

River men will take care of it to prevent its going away, 
and if it be lost thorrow their carelessness, they to bear 
the loss of it ; said scow to be delivered to them with 
sufficient chain or seizure to seize it withal." The ford 
or ferry then used was about three fourths of a mile west 
of D. R. bridge, as the river now runs. It was also 
agreed that all lands then laid out, and all suitable for im- 
provement be brought into common field and fenced ; 
ki and as every one's property cannot be known, that part 
of said fence above mill brook be done at public charge." 
Committee, Eben. Smead, Eben Brooks, M. Hinsdill, 
chosen to sell for £> 50 to Jos. Atherton, tract or tracts 
of land to that value. Committee also chosen to see 
survey made, and take a plat of such lands there suitable 
to be laid out. 

1722. On the records of this year is to be found 
" the proposal of the committee (1718) for stating and 
recording the lands on Green River granted to sundry 
persons." Twelve of these lots were 128 rods in length 
each, varving from 12 1-2 to 25 rods wide, from 10 to 
20 acres each lot. Ten abutted on the west line of the 
town, two on Green River, east. Thirteen other lots, 
SO to 100 rods long, 16 to 50 wide, 10 to 30 acres- 
East on Green River. 16 Grantees. This was the up- 
per division, part of the contents of the seven miles 
square, extending east 12 rods. 

Indians. — 1724. On the 25th Aug. a number of men 
passing a little south of where the Court House now 
stands, discovered a number of Indians posted on a ris- 
ing ground near by, apparently about opening a fire upon 
them. They, however, gave the Indians a shot and re- 
treated to the mill near by, but one of their number, 
Deacon Samuel Field, was severely wounded. Some 
of his descendants are still in Deerfield, and have always 
maintained a highly respectable character. The late 
Samuel Field, Esq. was one of the earliest practitioners 



GREENFIELD. 27 

of the law in this vicinity, a single minded, talented man. 
His writings attracted much attention by their wit and 
humor. 

1727. A committee was chosen to " advise with 
men of skill concerning a bridge over D. River at 
Cheapside." It was afterwards, in Dec. voted to build 
one at the first turn in the river. This vote was nega- 
tived in 1728, and a " scow and 2 canoes" with anchors, 
substituted. 

1730. Decided by vote, that men and their wives be 
seated together in the meeting house, and " to leave it 
with the seators to dignify the pews and seats." 1735. 
Bounty on skunks 6d, old crows 2s. 

1738-9. Jan. 15, The inhabitants of Green River 
petitioned the town (Deerfield) to be set off as a separ- 
ate Parish, which was refused. The population must 
then have been quite small, since in 1763, they number- 
ed only 368, but their local situation was such in rela- 
tion to the place of meeting as to render the granting of 
this request not only desirable but reasonable. 

1743. The request was again renewed, as we find 
by the following vote on the records of Deerfield. Nov. 
15. " Upon hearing the request of Green River inhabi- 
tants, &c. &c. the matter being fully debated, the ques- 
tion was put whether the town of Deerfield will set off 
said inhabitants as a town with the following bounds : — 
viz. North by the north bounds of the town — East by 
Conn. River — South by the 8000 acre line, so called, 
and a line west by the needle from the N. W. corner of 
said 8000 acres, so far as to the west side of the 7 miles 
square, and west by the west additional grant made to the 
town, and it passed in the affirmative." 

Note. — Colrain was settled about 1740, by emigrants 
from Londonderry, N. H., perhaps part of the 100 fam- 
ilies who had come there from the Province of Ulster, 
in Ireland, in 1719. They first introduced the foot spin- 
ning wheel and the culture of potatoes. 



28 HISTORY OP 

The petitioners asked that D. River should be the 
southern boundary, to extend up said river to Sheldon's 
brook ; West by needle to the W. line of 7 miles square. 
Negatived. A vote also passed this year allowing Green 
River 40s old tenor, a Sabbath, to procure preaching 
there three months. There seems to have been, from 
causes unknown to us,no proceedings had in consequence 
of the vote to set off this town until ten years after, when 
the records of Greenfield first commenced and the town 
was incorporated. Perhaps the delay was occasioned by 
the breaking out of the war, which occurred soon after. 

Indian Warfare. — In the year 1744, the war be- 
tween Eng. and France again commencing, the country 
was subjected anew to all the horrors of an Indian war. 
W r ith their mode of warfare which was altogether pecu- 
liar to themselves, although those horrors which always 
attended it, were undoubtedly heightened by their con- 
nection with the French, every school boy is familiar, 
and it is unnecessary to describe or detail them here. — 
It does not appear from any record or tradition which has 
come within my research, that the inhabitants within our 
territory were in very many instances subjected to their 
inroads more than many or all the settlements, or that it 
was the theatre of many regular fights; yet for many, 
years, the few residing here, went into the fields with a 
gun in one hand and the implements of husbandry in 
the other. 

The females left at home in the forts, of which there 
were several, had loaded fire arms ready, and ready 
hands to use them in defence of themselves and their 
children, and kept a constant look out, " all eye, all ear," 
in constant expectation of the foe. It is also said that 
they practiced firing at a mark to render themselves ex- 
pert in the use of arms. The present generation of 
females, whose hands seldom touch any thing more 
alarming than the needle or the keys of a piano, and 



GREENFIELD. 29 

faint at the smell of gun powder, and are of the " don't 
meddle with the gun Billy" species, would be ill suited 
for such times as tried the resolution and fortitude of 
the dames of yore. 

It appears by the records of Dedham, and otherwise, 
that the Indian titles to the lands here were extinguished 
by purchase, and also that the settlers received grants of 
them from the General Court ; but the natives reserved 
the right of fishing and hunting, and gathering nuts 
on the commons. 

Rations. — The rations allowed troops on the fron- 
tiers at this period, were — Garrison forces, 1 lb. bread 
per day, half pint peas or beans, 2 lbs. pork for three 
days, 1 gallon molasses for forty-two days. To march- 
ing forces, 1 lb. bread, 1 do. pork, 1 gill rum per day. 

Forts. — There was a fort at Adams ; one on the 
highlands, now Rowe, called fort Pelham ; at Heath, 
called Shirley. Several houses were stockaded at Col- 
rain, Bernardston, Northfield, Dummerston, and in this 
town. For years previous to the Fall fight, scouting 
parties kept ranging from fort Dummer, to Adams, on 
the look-out for Indians, and to discover their trails, and 
companies of large dogs were employed in this service, 
and the Indians could not well pass these lines without 
discovery. 

Lt. Oliver Atherton, who died in this town not many 
years ago, used to relate a thrilling incident which oc- 
curred to him about this period. He was required to 
go on express to Colrain fort. He was mounled on a 
spirited mare, and passing just beyond where Col. Sam- 

Note. — There was a fort where the High School for 
Young Ladies now is ; one where F. Ripley, Esq. has re- 
cently built a stone House ; one near the house of the 
late Judge Leavitt ; one nearly opposite the house of 
late Col. S. Wells, with a subterranean passage coming 
out at the brow of the hill, north. 



30 HISTORY OF 

uel Wells last lived ; a little farther on was the meadow 
gate, there being no open road ; the road sides were 
covered with trees and bushes. The mare suddenly 
snorted and otherwise crave such signs of fear as satisfi- 
ed him she scented an Indian, and he gave himself up 
for lost, when he thought of the hindrance of the meadow 
gate. The faithful and sagacious animal did not fail her 
master in this his hour of utmost need. She darted for- 
ward with the rapidity of lightning, and so thrust her nose 
between the gate and post, as to remove the fastening, 
and passed directly on her way through the river without 
delay or slackening her pace, and he was not forward to 
check her onward career. It is most likely she receiv- 
ed many encomiums on her arrival at the fort, and good 
horse meat and stabling, and still more likely that Ather- 
ton did not return alone, although a resolute and brave 
man. He often related the incident, and in his latter 
days the relating it affected him to tears. 

A brief account of the fall fight in 1676, previous to 
any settlements being made here, and within the limits 
of what was afterwards Greenfield, now Gill, may be 
found under the title, Falls. 

Nov. 1744. A vote was passed allowing " £30 old 
tenor, each year to Green River, £29 of which is paid 
for preaching already, and £12, more of said sum may 
be employed for preaching, if Green River people think 
it will be best, or otherwise the whole that is unpaid 
may be employed for keeping a school there.*" 

They also voted to raise no more money for the gar- 
risons than what had been already raised ; chose a com- 
mittee, Mr. Ashley and Dea. Childs, to go to Hadley, 
Northampton, and Hatfield, and state to the Represen- 
tatives of those towns the burthens under which the peo- 
ple of this town labor and desire them to use their influ- 

* The first, and for many years, the only School House 
in town, it is believed, was at the lower end of the main 
street, where Mr. Lamb lives. 



GREENFIELD. 31 

ence with the General Court to have their taxes alleviat- 
ed, and further to exert their influence to have the Court 
allow them for the charge the town has been at in build- 
ing the forts and erecting the garrisons for their own de- 
fence as well as that of their neighbors ; also that the 
town may have some soldiers sent to protect them from 
the enemy who are expected here from Crown Point 
before Spring. 

The Government of Massachusetts took measures for 
the defence of the people against the incursions of the 
French and Indians ; 500 men were impressed, of which 
number, 300 were for the eastern frontier, and 200 for 
the western.* The ordinary garrisons were reinforced, 
and 96 bbls. gun powder were sent to each town to be 
sold to them at cost and charges. In the spring the 
King's gift to Castle William, of 20 cannon of 42 lb. 
ball ; 2 mortars of 13 inches, and all stores, gun pow- 
der excepted, opportunely arrived at Boston, and the 
Legislature voted to build a range of forts between Con- 
necticut River and N. Y. boundary line. Maine then 
contained 2485 militia. The forts were to be built at 
Colrain, Shirley, Pelham and Adamsr 

In Dec. 1795, a committee was appointed to see what 
was proper to be done about fortifying Green River. On 
making their Report they were " directed to line the fort 
there on the east side, and so far on the north side 'till 
the house will defend it, and so at each side of the south 
gate, and also at each side of the well, to be lined with- 
stockades, to be paid by the town if nothing should be 
granted by the province for forting, nor any alteration of 
the grant already made for fortifying." They subsequent- 
ly received their pay from the Town Treasury. The same 
month a committee was chosen to petition the General 
Court, humbly and earnestly asking relief in their dis- 
tressed circumstances with respect to the war ; to take 

• Holmes Am. Annals. 



32 HISTORY OP 

it into their wise and compassionate consideration, &c. 
&c.; to grant such protection as to enable them to defend 
themselves and families, and to carry on husbandry with 
some degree of safety. 

In May, 1747, a petition was sent to the General 
Court asking for abatement of taxes in all or part, inas- 
much as they " labored under great difficulties on ac- 
count of the war, many of the inhabitants being thus 
drawn off, great quantities of improveableland being thus 
thrown up, and little profit arising from the rest from the 
cost of improving it. 

Schools. — In Nov. 1749, the sum of 30s old tenor, 
was granted per week to the school dames, at Green 
River, for their services the past summer. Twenty shil- 
lings, old tenor, was allowed for a day's work in summer, 
and fourteen for spring and fall work, so great was the 
depreciation of the currency. In consequence of this de- 
preciation, the salary of Mr. Ashley, which in 1747, had 
been raised from £130 to £450, was in 1748, raised to 
j£800. The next year school money was allowed Green 
River two months, besides three months for winter. 

Jan. 3, 1753. In answer to the petition of Green 
River people, this day presented to the town, requesting 
that they might be set off" into a separate district or pre- 
cinct by such metes and bounds as may be thought pro- 
per for them and us, &c. 

The town voted that they are willing and do consent - 
that they should be set off into a separate district or pre- 
cinct, provided their bounds and limits be as follows : 
viz. to begin at the north east corner of the township on 
Connecticut river, and to proceed southerly on said riv- 
er until they come to the line of the 8000 acres, and then 
proceed westward on said line to the west end of the 
first tier of lots west of the seven mile line, and from 
thence to proceed northerly, taking in said line to the end 
of our bounds, and then to go east on the town line until 



GREENFIELD. 33 

they come to the first mentioned boundary on Connecti- 
cut river. 

Committee to settle south line, &c. — On the 
2d day of April, 1753, at a town meeting held at Deer- 
field it was voted : 

That Col. Oliver Patridge, Dr. Samuel Mather, anci 
Dr. Eben Hunt, be desired to consider and determine 
where the dividing line shall be between the town and 
the proposed district on the north side of Deerfield river, 
and also to consider and determine where the Meeting 
House shall be placed in said district, and also to con- 
sider and determine whether the allotted and divided lands 
in said lands shall be subjected to a tax towards building 
a Meeting House and settling a minister, and if they 
think it proper it should be taxed, then what tax it shall 
pay per acre per annum, and for how many years, and 
also to determine what part of the public tax they shall 
have laid on them, and also what part of the sequestered 
land they shall be entitled to, and for what term ; in all 
these things to act and determine as if there had been 
no votes of the town previous to this with regard to said 
land or district with respect to the boundaries. 

It was also voted that said committee shall be paid for 
their trouble by the town, if the committee shall bring 
their south line further south than the town have voted 
it already, and if they do not, then the inhabitants of 
Green River to pay them. 

Aaron Denio, was then chosen, or rather a vote was 
passed that he be requested to notify the gentlemen of 
their being chosen, and " get them to do the business 
they are chosen for," and Messrs. Elijah Williams, 
Aaron Denio, Capt. John Catlin, Eben. Wells, 2d were 

Note. — In 1752, a committee was appointed to look 
out and make a road to Charlemont and to Huntstown, 
( Ashfield,) and to clear the road from logs and bushes fit 
tor a riding road. 



34 HISTORY OF 

chosen a committee " in behalf of the town to wait on 
the committee before chosen and let them know what is 
expected they will take into consideration, and .to ac- 
quaint them with the lands as far as they are able." 

Report of the Committee. — April IS, 1753. In 
compliance with the above instructions we met at the 
town of Deerfield upon the 9th day of said April, and on 
the next day we proceeded to view the lands proposed 
for a district, being attended by a committee of said 
town, two whereof belonged to the old town, and two to 
the proposed district. After we had made a thorough 
view of the lands by passing through the same in various 
places, we heard the allegations of the committee on both 
sides upon the articles above mentioned, and having ma- 
turely considered the same, do adjudge and determine it 
to be reasonable that the said district be set off in the 
manner following : viz. 

That a line be run as far north as a line known by the 
name of the 8000 acre line, to run from Connecticut 
river west to the west end of the first tier of lots which 
lie west of the seven mile line, so called, thence north, 
nineteen degrees east, to the northerly sifle of the town 
bounds, thence east on the town line to Connecticut riv- 
er , thence as said river runs to the first bounds. We 
further judge it reasonable that the lands lying in a cer- 
tain meadow or interval which lies north of Deerfield 
river, known by the name of Cheapside, which belongs 
to Timothy Childs, Jr. and David Wells, who dwell in 
said proposed district, should pay taxes to said district 
when set off. We are further of opinion, that a tax of 
one penny farthing per acre, lawful money be levied up- 
on the unimproved lands in said district, as soon as a 
frame of a meeting house be erected, and a further tax 
of one penny per acre upon said unimproved lands so 
soon as a minister is settled in said district, to be em- 
ployed for building a meeting house and settling a min- 
ister. 



GREENFIELD. 35 

We have also fixed the place for erecting a meeting 
house at a place called Trap plain,* where we have fixed 
a white oak stake. We further judge it reasonable that 
the same proposition of the county tax laid on the town 
of Deerfield, hereafter be paid by the said district when 
set off as was levied upon the inhabitants and rateable 
estates in the limits of said district for the last tax, and 
that the said district have the improvement of one half 
of the sequestered lands in said town of Deerfield lying 
north of Deerfield river. 

Oliver Partridge, 
Samuel Mather, 
Eben'r Hunt. 
Deerfield, April 12, 1753. 

At a town meeting held at Deerfield in December fol- 
lowing, a committee was appointed to divide the se- 
questered land or the income of it, north of Deerfield 
river, with the minister and people of Greenfield, or to 
do what shall be necessary in order to accomplish and 
settle the improvement of the said sequestered land. 
. In Feb. 1754, at a town meeting, the town of Deer- 
field " voted that the town do give and grant to the inhabi- 
tants of Greenfield the same proportionable part of the 
rents of the town land on the north side of Deerfield 
river, as they of the said district pay to the Province tax 
in consideration of the charge they are at for preaching, 
provided the said district will accept of the same, and 
that they do by their vote, at a meeting called for the 
purpose, give the town of Deerfield a discharge from all 
demands that they have in, and to the said rents for the 
year past, which the town votes as a free gift and not 
any thing they are by law enjoined to." 

* Where . — Flagg, Esq. and L. H. Long reside, 



36 HISTORY OP 



CHAPTER III. 

Record of first Meeting. — Jlnnals of the Town. — Seques- 
tered Lands. — Difficulties with the Mother Town. 

1753. The act incorporating the Green river people 
into a town is not found upon the records of this year. — 
The first record is that of a warrant for a meeting of the 
inhabitants and the proceedings under it, which are in- 
serted to show who were the prominent men of that day, 
and as a curiosity, in one respect at least. This town 
then included the present town of Gill. We have no 
means of determining the population accurately, but as at 
a period some years subsequent, it was only three hun- 
dred and sixty-eight, we may presume it not to have 
much exceeded three hundred and twenty-five, if so 
much. 

11 Hampshire ss. To Ensign Ebenezer Smead, of the' 
district of Greenfield in the County of Hampshire, Greet- 
ing. You are hereby required in his Majesties name, to 
warn all the freeholders and other inhabitants of said 
district qualified by law to vote the choice of district of- 
ficers to meet to gather att the house of James Corse in 
said district, on Tuesday the third day of July next, at 
one of the clock in the afternoon, then and there, after a 
moderator is chosen, to choose all such officers as by law 
are to be chosen for the managing the affairs of sd dis- 
trict, also, to doo what shall be thoat Nessessary to be 
done in order to provide preaching in sd district. Here- 
of fail not and make return of this warrant att the time 
and place aforesd. Given under my hand and seal att 
Deerfield this twenty six day of June 1753 Elijah Will- 
iams who am by law authorisd to Grant this warrant." 

"Att a Legal Town or District meeting held Greenfield 
July third 1753 



GREENFIELD. 37 

1. Benjamin Hastings was chosen Moderator, voted 
that 

2. Benjamin Hasting should be Town Clark. 

3. Voted Missrs Ebenezer Smead Samuel Hinsdell 
and Daniel Nash to be Selectmen and Assessors. 

4. Voted that Eben. Arms should be Town Treas- 
urer. 

5. Benjamin Hastings should be Cunstable. 

6. Missrs Nathanill Brooks and Shubael Atherton to 
be tithing men. * 

7. Missrs James Corse' Jona. Smead and Ebenezer 
Wells to be Fence viewers. 

8. Voted Messrs Amos Allen and Ebenezer Wells to 
be Surveyors of the Highways. 

9. Mr. Aaron Denio should be dearreaf.* 

10. James Corse and Amos Allin should be hogreafs. 

11. Joshua Wells should be sealer of weights and 
measures. 

12. Benjamin Hastings should be sealer of Leather. 

13. Messrs Thomas Nimsf and Gad Corse should 
be Field Drivers. 

14. Daniel Graves Daniel Nash and Aaron Denio be 

Note, — The people were notified of the hours of meet- 
ing on the Sabbath., and other days, by the beating of the 
drum, for which one year £4. 10s was paid, (old tenor) 
— in 1756, 4s only. James Corss, lived first where C. J. 
J. Ingersoll lives, in a log house or fort — after where 
Maj.J. Smead lives. 

* Deer-reeve. The hunting of Deer is still regulated 
by a law passed in 1807. Penalty for killing between 
1st Jan and 1st Aug. $14. Same for killing deer at any 
time in Barnstable County. 

t Ancestor of Lt. Hull Nims of this town, of the fam- 
ily of Godfrey Nims, one of the first settlers of Deerfield. 
The place he first occupied is still owned by his descend- 
ants — the heirs of late Dea. Seth Nims. 

4* 



38 HISTORY OF 

a committee to supply us with preaching for the present 
year." Such is the record of the first meeting. 

Minister. — At a subsequent meeting, the 16th day 
of August was set apart as a day of prayer and fasting. 
Mr. Ashley of Deerfield, Mr. Ashley of Sunderland, Mr. 
Abercrombie of Pelham, clergymen, were " invited to 
assist in the work of the day and give their advice for 
some meet person to settle in the work of the ministry." 
At another meeting, the same month, a commtttee was 
chosen to " take the advice or approbation" of a number 
of ministers — viz. Mr. Edwards of Stockbridge, Hop- 
kins of Sheffield, Williams of Long Meadow, Hall of 
Sutton, Ashley of D., Ashley of S., Abercrombie of 
Pelham, " with respect to the Quallifications or fitness of 
Mr. Edward Billings for the work of the ministry in 
Greenfield." 

Call. — Sept. 24, following, the town voted to give 
him a call. Daniel Nash and Timothy Childs* were 
" the committee to acquaint him of it." Call accepted. 

Wages. Schools. — The wages " of persons that 
have done service for this district" were fixed at two 
shillings for summer, per day, and one shilling and four 
pence for the fall. A committee was chosen to provide 
the district with a school and school house. As in near- 
ly all the towns of N. England, so in this, immediately 
after a settlement commenced, the inhabitants turned 
their thoughts and care to the providing for the preach- 
ing of the Gospel and the establishment of schools. — 
Their particular and anxious attention and care on these 
subjects formed a distinguishing trait in their character. 

1754. Three houses were picquetted at the expense 
of the town, viz. Joshua Wells,' James Corss,' and Shu- 
bael Atherton's, for a protection against the incursions 
of the Indians. 

* Capt. Childs lived where Dea. T. Stoughton now 
Uvea in Gill, just above the Falls. 



GREENFIELD 39 

1755. Roads. — They voted to repair the King's 
highways and none else ; also to petition the General 
Court for some relief, and a meeting was ordered to be 
warned to choose a Representative. Benj. Hastings* 
and Ebenezer Smead were a committee to carry on the 
petition. It does not appear that a Representative was 
chosen. 

1756. Rev. Mr. Billings leased to the district one 
half of the sequestered land in Deerfield, lying in town 
swamp west meddow and point Judah, " during the time 
of his ministry for £13. 6s 8d." 

Indians. — 1756. In the early part of this year war 
was formally declared between France and England, 
though hostilities had existed in the previous year by 
which the colonies suffered considerably. The war be- 
tween them and the natives in New England, at this pe- 
riod, aud most of those, with the exception of King Phil- 
lips, were occasioned by the quarrels between France 
and England. On the occurrence of these, the French 
incited the Indians to commit cruelties and depredations 
upon the colonists. In the early part of this year the 
Indians hovered about these frontier settlements, and the 
people petitioned Government for aid. Small forces 
were stationed at the forts at Northfield, Deerfield, in 
this town, and other places, as well as on the line of forts. 
A party of Indians had posted themselves on the hill 
near the Asher Corss farm, now owned by Mr. Hart 
Larabee. The people from other parts of the town im- 
proved lands there, and at this time a stack of flax was 
piled and stood on the ground near a field of grain. They 
placed their guns against the flax, which was undoubted- 

* Mr. Hastings owned a tract of land running nearly 
through the town from the north to the south. His 
house stood on the rising ground a little west of Mr. Ab- 
ner Wells' at Stocking Fort, on land now of Mr. E. W. 
Kingsley. A giant elm lately stood near the spot. 



40 HISTORY OF 

ly seen by the Indians. The men were Benjamin Has- 
tings, John Graves, Daniel Graves, Shubal Atherton and 
.Nathaniel Brooks. The Indians skulked in this field of 
grain, and coming near, crawled like snakes, as was 
plainly to be perceived afterwards by the impressions left 
in the field, and got between them and their guns ; they 
lied on the instant and were fired upon ; but the fire took 
no effect. Hastings and John Graves fled across the 
river, to what is called Irishjplain, where Col. Smead and 
Capt. Smead now live, and came out at the Arms farm, 
where Mr. Thayer now lives. Hastings said the fern 
growing there was as high as his waist, but he went over 
the top of the whole of it. Few of our modern bucks, tho' 
they sometimes drive furiously, as did Jehu of old, 
would with their best trotters, have performed the tour 
as quick. Atherton concealed himself in some brush- 
wood under the river bank, or in a hollow place near it, 
but the Indians were so hot in their pursuit that he did 
not escape their notice and he was shot. Daniel Graves 
and Brooks were taken. Graves was old, infirm and 
ill able to travel. He was killed soon after they left the 
spot and near the saw mill, at a short distance from the 
Glen. Brooks never returned. The people of this vil- 
lage soon rallied, joined by Maj. Williams and others 
from Deerfield, and followed in pursuit of the Indians, 
but without success. 

1757. The General Court was petitioned for an 
abatement of taxes. 1750. The road running west 
from the Gill road to Nash's mill was laid out. 

Meeting House. — 1760. The people began to 
make preparations and gather materials for building a 
meeeting house, 50 by 40. It was rough boarded only, 
and so remained for many years, and was, like others in 
the couutry, without pews or slips. 

Ministry. — A call was given to Mr. Bulkley Olcott 
to settle in the ministry. They offered him as salary, 



GREENFIELD. 41 

the first year, £66. 13s. 4d. to rise £l. 6s. Sd. yearly, 
till the sum amount to £80. The call was not accepted. 
1761. In August a call was given to Mr. Roger 
Newton and accepted. A particular account of this part 
of our history will be found under title — Ecclesiastical. 

Roads. — In 1763, a road was laid from the west end 
of the village to the Country Farm, and voted to do ten 
days work on it ; also on the road from the meeting 
house, north. 

Deerfield, Feb. 22, 1758. 
Town Lands. — " Then the Selectmen of Deerfield 
and Greenfield met and jointly agreed upon a division of 
the town land so called, which is as follows — viz. that 
the west meddow, Judahs point and the following land 
on Fort Hill belongs to Deerfield town the present year, 
and the rest to the district of Greenfield and to exchange 
yearly until a further agreement ; also that the plowing 
land belonging to the town swamp be sowed with Dutch 
clover, and the peace by the river in the west meddow 
this year." 

Joseph Stebins, i C Jonathan Severance 

Daniel Nash, V Selectmen. < John Arms, 
Daniel Arms, j ( Samuel Wells, 

Schools. — 1763. A vote was passed to " hire a 
school the year round." In 1764, ,£13. 6s. was raised 
for schools to be divided upon the scholar. There 
were only three districts, one in the village, at the old 
meeting house, and at or near Nash's mills. In 1767, 
the town was divided into seven districts for schools. — 
" One in the street, three in the meadows, one by Noah 
Ailins, one in N. E. corner, one at Ensign Childs', (at 
the Falls,) and but one school master, and he to move to 
each district according to ye proportion, and to have a 
school dame the other six months, and she to keep school 
in ye several districts according to their proportion. All 



42 HISTORY OF 

the masters and dames that are improved to be approved 
by the Selectmen." £20, raised for schools, and the 
meeting house was glazed. 

Sequestered Lands. Difficulties with the 
Mother Town. — 1768. It has been seen that the 
town was incorporated in 1753, but the report of the 
committee and the act of incorporation do not appear up- 
on the town records until this year, about sixteen years 
after it was pa?sed. Disputes and contentions arose 
respecting the sequestered lands, and we are informed 
by tradition, that an affray took place between individu- 
als of the two towns, when they fought with their rakes 
and pitchforks, on the lands, for the possession of the 
crops. The following vote, found on the records of the 
towns, show somewhat relating thereto. 

At a meeting held March 25 — S. Hinsdale Modera- 
tor — a vote was passed, " to take best advice we can get 
with respect to our holding or keeping the sequestered, 
lands for ye use of the ministry in Deerfield, and if we 
can have proper Incoragement, to stand a tryal in the 
law for the same." S. Hinsdale, Amos Allen, Ebenezer 
Wells were chosen a committee to prosecute the affair 
according to their best skill and judgement. David 
Wells and Jona. Severance were added to the com- 
mittee. 

Deerfield, 1768. 

Same Subject. — March 28th, as appears by the re- 
cords of the town of Deerfield, a committee was raised 
" to make application in behalf of the town, to some 
gentleman versed in the law, respecting the expediency 
of the town making an attempt in the law, to get into 
the town's use and improvement that part of the seques- 
tered lands which are now, and have been for a number 
of years past, improved by the district of Greenfield, and 
make report of their doings," &c. 

In this town, May, 29, 1769, a committee was chosen 



GREENFIELD. 43 

(Benj. Hastings, Samuel Hinsdale, Aaron Denio, Amos 
Allen, Eben. Wells, J. Severance, David Wells,) " to 
prefer a petition to the General Court to make a new act 
with regard to our being set off from ye town of Deer- 
field sd act to be made agreeable to the Report of the 
committee that was mutually chosen by the Town and us 
for that purpose sd Report being accepted by the Town 
and district." Eben Wells, Moderator. 

As the act of incorporation and the conduct of the 
parties in relation to it, was made for a long time the 
subject of violent controversy between the inhabitants of 
the different territories, the effects of which are yet hard- 
ly dissipated, the circumstances by which it was preceded 
and followed, deserve a distinct consideration. Any 
professed history of Greenfield, which should omit facts 
which our fathers deemed so important and which fur- 
nished them so long with materials for excitement and 
complaint, would be justly chargeable with imperfection ; 
and however unpleasant portions of the duty may be 
which I take upon myself, I cannot honestly escape from 
its fullperformance. Happily, though there is much of 
tradition connected with this subject, the principal facts 
are engraved upon public records, which leave little op- 
portunity for mistake or coloring. 

Long before the act of incorporation it became obvi- 
ous that the interests of the inhabitants required that the 
northern portion of the old town of Deerfield, should be 
for the purpose of municipal government separated from 
the remainder. In this, all concurred, but the difficulty 
was, as to where the line should be established. Both 
parties contended earnestly for " Cheapside," the inhab- 
itants of the northern portion maintaining that the Deer- 
field river opposite the place, was the natural boundary, 
which mutual convenience and benefit required should 
be recognized as the line of separation, while on the oth- 
er side it was insisted with equal warmth, and no doubt 



44 HISTORY OF 

from a feeling of honorable pride, that the line ought to 
be so fixed as to include in Deerfield all of the just 
grants of land to the proprietors of Pocomtuek. It was 
found impossible to settle this dispute without the aid of 
disinterested arbitrators. Accordingly, at a legal meet- 
ing of the inhabitants of Deerfield, April 2, 1753, it was 
voted that Col. Oliver Partridge, of Hatfield, Doct. 

Samuel Mather of and Lieut. Ebenezer Hunt 

of Northampton, be desired "to determine where the 
dividing line shall be between the town and the propos- 
ed district, on the north side of Deerfield river, and also 
to consider and determine various other subjects, among 
which was " also that part of the sequestered land 
they" (the new district) " shall be entitled to, and for 
what term ;" and a committee of four, of whom two be- 
longed to the southern portion of the town — viz. Elijah 
Williams and John Catlin, and two to the proposed dis- 
trict — viz. Aaron Denio and Ebenezer Wells, were ap- 
pointed to wait upon the Referees on the examination. 
The Referees, who were men of high character and 
consequence, went upon the ground the 10th of April, at- 
tended by the committee, and having fully heard the par- 
ties, made an award, by which the town of Deerfield en- 
gaged to abide in the division. The award was that the 
line should be as insisted upon by the old town, but with 
certain conditions and provisions in favor of the propos- 
ed district by way of compensation. The act creating 
the new district of Greenfield, was passed only two 
months afterwards, and follows, almost literally the 
award, excepting as to these provisions in favor of 
the district ; which are so altered and limited in the act, 
contrary to the agreement of the parties, as to destroy 
almost entirely their purpose and effect. — These provis- 
ions are these— relating 

1st. To the sequestered lands. 

2d. To the taxation of the meadow land in Cheap- 
side. 



GREENFIELD. 45 

The Referees decided (hat " the said district of Green- 
field have the use and the improvement of one half of 
the sequestered lands in the said town of Deerfield, be- 
ing north of Deerfield river," and this forever, for there is 
no limitation of the provision, either in the award or the 
acceptance of it by the town of Deerfield. 

The act, on the contrary, is that " the said district 
shall have the improvement of one half of the sequester- 
ed lands on the north side of Deerfield river until there 
shall be another district or parish made out of the said 
town of Deerfield" — thus introducing, contrary to the 
stipulations of the parties, a limitation to this enjoyment, 
not authorised by the award, and which the Referees af- 
terwards testified was " entirely contrary to their intent 
and meaning."* 

Again, the award provided that " the lands lying in a 
certain meadow or interval which lies north of Deer- 
field river, which is known by the name of Cheapside, 
which belong to Timothy Childs and David Wells, who 
dwell in the said proposed district, shall pay taxes to the 
said district." This was also without limitation, and the 
construction of the award of course, was, as was also 
the agreement of Deerfield in accepting it, that these 
lands should be so taxed forever. But this stipulation 
was also violated in the charter, which enacts that " the 
lands in a certain interval or meadow called Cheapside. 
which do now belong to Timothy Childs, Jr. and David 
Wells, shall pay their taxes in said district, so long as 

* This limitation was not only contrary to the agree- 
ment of the parties, but clearly inequitable and absurd. 
If it had been provided that on the incorporation of a 
new district, a new division should have taken place, in 
which the new district should share, it would have had a 
semblance of justice, but the construction here is not that 
when a new district should be incorporated that should 
have its share with Deerfield and Greenfield, but that 
then Deerfield should reserve the whole. 
5 



46 HISTORY OP 

they are owned by any person living in said district." 
The effect of this limitation of the second right of the 
district, also introduced into the eharter contrary to the 
agreement founded upon the award, is sufficiently obvi- 
ous. If Mr. Childs or Mr. Wells should move down 
upon their own farms (which comprised the principal 
part of the meadow at Cheapside, besides the sequester- 
ed lands) or if these farms should go into the hands of 
any person not an inhabitant of Greenfield, tho' but for an 
instant, the right of taxation by Greenfield would be 
lost forever — for if once lost, it could not be resumed 
though the lands should again belong to inhabitants of 
Greenfield ; and such has been the exact practical effect 
of it, and it is to be remarked as showing the case with 
which the limitation was introduced, that it is exactly in 
the words, i. e. " so long as," which legal writers have 
recommended as having the effect, and which have re- 
ceived a settled judicial interpretation. 

The first question arose as to the sequestered lands 
which embraced something more than thirty acres of 
meadow, worth now about $5000. It would seem that the 
inhabitants of the district of Greenfield were not aware 
of the variations between the award and charter till 1787. 
This is to be inferred not only from their own language 
so often repeated after that time, but from the facts ap- 
pearing upon their own records. Soon after the passage 
of the act, the magistrate of Deerfield, who was named in 
it, called a meeting of the inhabitants, the full record of 
which is preserved upon their books. They organized 
by the choice of their officers, but it does not appear that 
the act was read to them — certainly there was no vote 
in relation to it, nor does the record contain it or a sin- 
gle allusion to its provisions. After the incorporation 
of the new district of Conway, it was brought for the 
first time to the notice of Greenfield and spread upon its 
book of records— and then follow the complaints of 
wrong, and injury, and fraud, which no one, acquainted 



GREENFIELD. 47 

with their character, can doubt would have been heard 
earlier, if the facts had come earlier to their knowledge ; 
and it is to be remembered that Greenfield had no rep- 
resentative in the Legislature till after the Revolution, 
when by the provisions of the constitution she became 
entitled to the rights of a town. Till 1767, the parties 
had governed themselves by the award, which each had 
upon its books, as the rule of its conduct. Thdy had 
amically divided the sequestered lands, each improving 
its half and maintained all its provisions as to taxation. 
But in this year, the limitation as to the sequestered 
land having taken effect by the incorporation of the new 
district of Conway, Deerfield demanded the relinquish- 
ment of that part which had been up to this time improv- 
ed by Greenfield, and which by the agreement of the 
parties she was to enjoy forever. This demand was re- 
sisted on the part of Greenfield to the last, and it is said 
that the contest was not carried on in words only. In 
the summer of 1768, the agents of Deerfield took pos- 
session of the land, and mowed it, and each party went 
on in strong force to take away the hay, and an encoun- 
ter took place between them, in which, it is said, clubs 
and pitchforks were freeiy resorted to. The Greenfield- 
ites were successful in carrying off the greater portion 
of the hay, and the town of Deerfield immediately com- 
menced against them individually several actions of tres- 
pass qiiare clausum, for entering upon the land, which 
were defended at the expense of the district. The trial 
of the first case was thor6ughly contested, and made it 
most manifest that the legal rights were as clearly one 
way, as the equitables were the other. Greenfield in- 
sisted upon her right acquired under the award, and the 
deliberate agreement of the other party to fulfil it, but 
the court very properly decided that as ministers of the 
law, they could only look to the act of incorporation — 
that it was a public and not a private law, which they had 
no power to overturn, and if there was any fraud or vio- 



48 HISTORY OF 

lation of previous contract between the parties attending 
its passage, the remedy of Greenfield was with the Leg- 
islature, not with the Courts, which must carry out the 
act as they found it. All the suits were afterwards com- 
promised by the payment of $40. 

During the pendency of these suits, Greenfield had 
made her appeal to the Legislature. At a meeting of 
the district, May 29, 1769. Lieut. Benj. Hastings, 
Samuel Hinsdale, AarOn Denio, Amos Allen, Ebene- 
zer Wells, Jonathan Severance and David Smead, were 
appointed a committee, with directions " to prefer a pe- 
tition to the General Court to make a new act with re- 
gard to our being set off from the town of Deerfield — sd 
act to be made agreeable to the report of the committee, 
which was mutually chosen by the town and us for that 
purpose ; sd report being accepted by the town and dis- 
trict." 

The committee performed their duty. They drew 
up a petition, in which the variances between the award 
and the charter were fully and ably presented, and enter- 
ed the same on the 27th day of March, 1770. They 
afterwards filed with the petition, by leave, the following 
certificate of the Referees. 

•' Whereas, we the subscribers were appointed by the 
town of Deerfield, in the year 1753, to consider and de- 
termine in what manner the district of Greenfield should 
be set off from the town of Deerfield, and among other 
things to determine what part of the sequestered lands in 
Deerfield, the said district, when set off should be enti- 
tled to and for what term of time, which article we took 
under consideration as by our report appears, and we did 
determine that it was reasonable that the said district 
should have the improvement of the one half of the sd 
sequestered lands lying north of Deerfield river, without 
limitation of any time, &c, and now being desired to 
signify the understanding we then had of the affair — we 
do now say, that it was our design and intent that the sd 



GREENFIELD. 49 

district should forever thereafter hold and improve part 
of the sd lands, and having seen the act of incorpora- 
tion of the district of Greenfield and the limitation there- 
in made with respect to the improvement of the sd se- 
questered lands, which we freely declare is entirely con- 
trary to what was our intent and meaning. 

Oliver Patridge, 
Samuel Mather, 
Ebenezer Hunt," 
December 29, 1770. 

It will be recollected that the Legislature then con- 
sisted of the Governor, appointed by the King and his 
council, who could be appointed only by his concurrence 
which formed one branch of the General Court — and the 
Representatives of the people, which formed the other. 
This matter was before the General Court several years 
and on every important vote, the Governor and Council 
were on the side of Deerfield, while the Representatives 
of the people always recognised the agreement as equi- 
tably binding upon the parties, and maintained that 
Greenfield had been wronged, and should be redressed. 
It will be seen by the report in council that they did not 
deny the contract, or the fairness of the award, but set 
up certain technical objections, as to the power of Deer- 
field to make the agreement, &c. which have indeed no 
more foundation in law than in reason. 

Of the probable motives which governed the different 
parties, there has been much speculation, but we know 
little. As the charter could not be altered without the 
concurrence of both branches, nothing was done. The 
war of the revolution came soon afterwards, and our fa- 
thers forgot this excitement in the higher promptings of 
patriotism. They gave their whole hearts to the cause 
of their country. 

The act of incorporation and papers relating to other 
5* 



50 HISTORY OF 

matters, mentioned in the foregoing sketch, may be found 
in the appendix. 

In Dec. 1770, the town of Deerfield appointed a com- 
mittee to agree with one from this town as to all matters 
oC controversy between them respecting town lands, 
*' more especially, all matters of trespass committed by 
the inhabitants of sd district from 1768 to the present 
time, and to make final settlement of all matters or ac- 
tions in law, judgement and executions, that have al- 
ready commenced or been recovered against any person 
or persons for trespass," &c. &c. 

In 1771, a committee was chosen to meet and agree 
with a committee from Deerfield all matters of contro- 
versy respecting town land, and all matters of trespass, 
&c. These were adjusted and a discharge given by 
Deerfield for £40, with a reservation that nothing there- 
in written should effect the title to the land. 

Mr. Sewell was chosen agent for the town to act for 
them at the General Court with respect to the town land. 
Again, in 1772, Samuel Hindsdale was appointed to 
prefer a petition to the General Court, that Greenfield 
incorporation bill might be repealed and the town be in- 
corporated into a Parish unless they might be entitled to 
ail the privileges and emoluments agreeable to the re- 
port of the committee appointed by Deerfield for that 
purpose, which report was confirmed by a vote of that 
town. Samuel Barnard, Jr. and J. Adams, Esq. of 
Braintee were added, by a vote of Deerfield, to their 
agents, to manage the controversy with this town before 
the General Court, 

Nothing further appears upon the records respecting 
this subject until the year 1782, when the subject was 
again brought before the town. 

Public Worship. — 1772. A vote was passed to 
finish the meeting house the following year. Many 
houses of worship at this period were without pews and 



GREENFIELD. 51 

the audience were accommodated with benches ranged 
about the house. The singing for a long period was 
conducted after a manner which is now called " deacon- 
ing," and was on this wise ; — The singers were dispers- 
ed about the meeting house, having no place assigned 
them, by themselves. After the minister had read the 
psalm, he repeated the first line which the singers sang, 
the Deacon then took up the matter and read the next 
line, which went through a like process as before had 
befallen the first line, and so on. In some towns, meet- 
ings were held on the subject. At Worcester a town 
meeting was called in 1726, to see " in which way the 
congregation shall sing in future in public, whether in 
the ruleable way or in the usual way ;" the former was 
adopted, not without opposition. The mode of reading 
prevailed in Boston and throughout New England, un- 
til about the year 17S0.* 

In 1773, " Voted that age, state (estate) and qualifi- 
cations to be the rule for seating the meeting house. A 
committee was chosen to draw up something to send to 
the committee of Correspondence at Boston," also £20 
for a school ; £320 to pay town debts. 

In 1774, " Yoted £42 for town debts, and to divide 
the town into squadrons for the best advantage for the 
public schools." 

Sept. 1774. At a full meeting, Samuel Hinsdale, En- 
sign Timothy Childs, Daniel Nash, Ebenezer Arms, 
Thos. Nims, Samuel Wells, Benj. Hastings, chosen 
committee, some one or more of them to attend the 
Provincial or County Congress. Oct. Daniel Nash, 
delegate to Prov. Congress to be held at Concornd the 
11th inst. 

There had been much excitement and trouble in the 
Province, previous to this time on account of the oppres- 
sive acts of the British Government, and among others 

* Lincoln's Hist. Worcester. 



52 HISTORY OF 

the duty on tea — the detested Bohea, as it was expres- 
sed, which, notwithstanding many towns had passed 
Resolutions that they would not purchase any articles of 
British Merchandize, except medicines, was still secret- 
ly made use of by many, fastening up their doors while 
using it, but the more patriotic made use of infusions of 
mint, Sage, &c. The operation of the Port Bill also, by 
which the port of Boston was precluded from shipping, 
or landing Goods, and was closed up, put an end to 
business and produced great distress, with many other 
grievances, were the causes of the Congress at Concord. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Remarks. — Revolutionary Times and Incidents. 

From the character of the matter in the preceding 
chapters, I apprehend very few readers will follow my 
pen, page by page, to the commencement of this ; that 
few have had patience to follow out, and be with me to 
the close of the last. Such annals are to most readers 
dry and uninviting, and gladly would I have omitted 
many details, if, consistently, I could have done so. Pa- 
tience should be ranked high in the list of cardinal vir- 
tues, and is of inestimable value to the poor and unfor- 
tunate ; unblessed by its influence and the smiles of the 
enchantress, hope, life would be, to many, an insup- 
portable burthen ; and that too, to some, who to us seem 
happy, or in whose circumstances we can see nothing to 
mar their felicity— but whose hearts are full of bitterness. 
Be our condition what it may, we are then only correct, 
when we envy no one, and make the best we may of our 
own. The clouds and mists which now t perchance, 



GREENFIELD. 53 

obscure the horizon of our prospects, hovering over the 
mountain summits, descending even to their base, al- 
most blotting out, as to us, the source of light, may 
break and disperse ; a bow of promise appear, and our 
sun may set in unclouded majesty and splendor. He 
who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, may send a 
healing balm to cleanse and cure the wounds inflicted 
by the poisoned arrows of adversity. Let your motto be 
Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.* 

I advised the reader in the third paragraph of the first 
chapter, that the subject was dry and uninviting — and 
gave sufficient intimation that the volume would be so ; 
thus far my promise or prediction has been fulfilled to 
the letter. Let him apply the patience I have re- 
commended, to the preceding chapters, and then to 

all the remainder ; from the mass of chafT, some grains 
of wheat may be winnowed. 

1775. A period of powerful and all absorbing inter- 
est in the history of our country had now arrived, and 
the people were called upon to decide, each for himself, 
a question of great moment and consequence. Our 
records are almost barren of any local incident relating 
to it. The population of the town was then very small. 
It appears however from what is known, that they were, 
with very few exceptions, ardently engaged in the cause. 
That there were not more exceptions, considering the 
strength and power of the British and the ties of blood, 
the weakness, poverty and embarrassment, and the scat- 
tered state of the population, wearied and vexed by their 
sufferings in the Indian and French wars, is surpris- 
ing. Every leading and important event of this Revo- 
lution is so well known, even to the school boy, so 
much has been said and sung, and related even in 
common every day conversation, and in every 4th Ju- 
■ i — ■ 

* With patience persevere and reserve yourselves for 
prosperous days. 



54 HISTORY OF 

ly Oration narrated, and re-narrated for the ten thou- 
sandth time, that it would be worse than superfluous, (in 
the humble compilation of the history of a town not five 
miles square, and which only a few years previous (1763) 
contained a population of 368 men, women, boys, girls, 
maiden ladies and little children, all told) to deal in lof- 
ty language, or enact any raptures on the subject. 

The towns were repeatedly called upon during the 
war for articles of clothing and men for the service, of 
which this town, as appears by their records, furnished 
their quota. I have chosen generally to give the very 
language of the record, in some cases for brevity sake, 
in others to show their manner of expression, &c. as 
matter of curiosity, which may give to this work the ap- 
pearance, to some, of a dry, dull tedious detail, barren of 
interest. The reader has a remedy in his own hands — 
a choice he can exercise to the full, by laying down the 
book. 

" On the 19th April, an express came to Worcester, 
shouting as he passed through the street at full speed, 
4 to arms ! to arms ! the war is begun !' His white horse 
bloody with spurring, and dripping with sweat, fell ex- 
hausted by the church. The bells rang out the alarm, 
cannons were fired, the implements of husbandry thrown 
by in the field, and all seized their arms. The pas- 
sage of the messenger of war, mounted on a white steed 
and gathering the population to battle, made vivid im- 
pression on memory. The tradition of his appearance 
is preserved in many of our villages. In the animated 
description of the aged, it seems like the representation 
of death on the pale horse, careering through the land 
with his terrific summons to the grave.'*" 

The news spread over the country and the battle of 
Lexington occurred soon after. What part of our pop- 
Lincoln's Hist. Worcester. 



GREENFIELD. 55 

ulation joined the army of that time we are uninformed. 
The 2d Congress was held in May and resolved upon 
measures of defence, and to make common cause with 
New England, organized the higher departments of the 
army, emit bills of credit, and the twelve states became 
confederate. 

A vote is found on record, at this time, to raise 100 
pounds powder and lead each, in addition to town stock 
on hand. 

In the midst of the commotions of war, the people are 
found peaceably proceeding to seat their meeting house 
by a committee, by age and estate. This was a business 
to which a good deal of importance was attached, and 
often the occasion of much heart burning, hard feeling 
and difficulty. " Each man to model his estate as he 
sees fit in his own family ; the first three in the list shall 
have the first choice in the pews. They that choose the 
great pew or either of the north corner pews shall have 
the next on the list put in with them, and so till we get 
through the house. One year's age shall be equal to 
£3 of estate. No minor shall be seated for any estate; 
males shall be seated from 16 years and upwards — fe- 
males from 14." 

Immediately after the battle of Lexington the towns 
received circulars by express or otherwise, and the peo- 
ple of this town assembled instanter, on the afternoon of 
the day on which the intelligence was received. It is 
related of one individual, Mr. Elijah Mitchell, that being 
in the village at the time, he went home on foot, a mile 
or more west, and returned with his equipments, ready 
to march, in fifteen minutes from the time he started. — 
The suddenness of the gathering, reminds us of Scott's 
beautiful description of the gathering of a Scottish clan, 
summoned in the hour of danger, by the rapid passage 
over hill and dale of the cross of fire sending far around 
its beacon light. 



56 HISTORY OF 

" Fast as the fatal symbol flies, 
In arms the huts and hamlets rise 
From winding glen, from upland brown 
They poured each hardy tenant down. 
The fisherman forsook the strand, 
The swarthy smith took dirk and brand, 
With changed cheer, the mower blithe 
Left in the half cut swathe his scythe. 
The herds without a keeper strayed, 
The plough was in mid furrow stayed. 51 

There were two militia companies, one of which, un- 
der Capt. Agrippa Wells, met in the village, and the oth- 
er at the north meeting house under Capt. Ebenezer 
Wells. 

A great number assembled at the meeting house. — 
With few exceptions, this assembled throng, the bowed 
with age, and the stripling with scarce the down upon his 
cheek, were ardent in the patriot cause ; the ardor spread 
from heart to heart 

"Like fire to heather set," 

Like fire among the autumnal woods, 

as the story was told, that American blood had been 
shed by the British soldiery. 

It was immediately proposed that Thomas Loveland, 
the drummer, should take a station on the horse block 
under an elm at the south side of the common, and beat 
the long roll for volunteers. It was accordingly done, 
and sounded far and wide among the woods and fields. 
The officers of the company, Capt. E. Wells, Lt. Allen. 
and Ens. J. Severance were there, but stood aloof, dis- 
suading from the adventure as savouring of treason and 
rebellion against the Government. They had not made 
up their minds to join the patriot cause. But the long 
roll of Thomas JLoveland had done its work. The 
younger " had heard of battles, and doubtless, longed to 
follow to the field some warlike Lord," and while their 
zeal animated by the elder, from whose eyes came like 
a meteor fire the spirit of patriotism, and' their frames, 



GREENFIELD 57 

inspired with a new vigor; to all the voice of the blood of 
their brethren, cried from the ground, avenge our cause 
on a brutal soldiery ! Among these men was Aaron De- 
nio. There was an overwhelming majority for the con- 
test. We can see their eager, anxious, determined 
countenances, and significant, animated gestures. The 
cautious advice of their respected, and beloved officers, 
hitherto listened to with respect and obediently followed 
was now no more regarded than the passing breeze, or 
the twittering of the swallow, and the crickets nightly 
song. 

Upon the first beating of the long roll, first and fore- 
most stood out, that hardy, industrious and bold yeoman 
Benjamin Hastings, a William Wallace in intrepidity 
and determined bravery. Who so daring as to come next 
and risk the halter? It were difficult to say ; the whole 
mass was in motion on that bleak and barren old com- 
mon, trap plain. The assembled townsmen volunteered 
almost to a man. The long roll of Tom Loveland and 
the examples of Hastings were electric and contagious. 

We have no captain to lead us to avenge the blood of 
our slaughtered brethren. Who shall it be ? Benjamin 
Hastings said one ; Benjamin Hastings said every one, 
and he was chosen as it were by acclamation. Captain 
Wells said, "Serjeant Hastings, you will have your neck 
stretched for this." What his reply was is not known, 
but his words were probably as fearless as his actions. — 
It was by such a spirit as actuated this individual that 
the most glorious revolution recorded by history, was ac- 
complished. 

Hastings* had observed among the people collected, 

* Mr. Hastings was originally from Hatfield, removed 
to Wapping in Deerfield, and thence to this town. He 
lived for a time nearly opposite Miss C. Willard's house 
— at the old fort. Aaron Denio kept a tavern at the for- 
mer place. Hastings happened Jin one day, and Denio 
said to several persons sitting there, here you are a par- 
6 



58 HISTORY Of 

Capt. Timothy Childs, who resided near the falls, and 
had been an officer in the company of militia. With 
that modesty which generally accompanies true merit, 
he observed to the people that Childs was older and had 
had much more experience than himself, and declined 
taking the command in favor of Childs, which was 
agreed to, and himself became second in command ; he 
had previously been a sergeant. Aaron Denio was cho- 
sen Ensign. Day-break of the ensuing morning found 
them on their march to Cambridge. Another company 
was afterwards formed, of which Agrippa Wells was 
Captain. This was made up from the south company, 
the other was called the east company. Stouter hearts 
never buckled on a knapsack or a broad sword, or hand- 
led a musket, or fought at Thermopylae. No braver 
men fought at Bunker Hill, at Bennington or Yorktown, 
or any other town where fighting was to be done for their 
home and barren wilderness. It might then be said — 

If nothing else, ii these barren fields afford. 
Man and steel, the soldier and his sword." 

How could hireling Hessians expect to conquer such a 
people, contending for home, liberty, wives, children and 
friends. They had mothers who set up through the night 
to fry nutcakes for the wants of their husbands and sons 
on their march, and to run bullets to be used to destroy 
their enemies; who practised firing at marks, and watch- 
ed the forts in the Indian wars, with a gun on one side 
and a spinning wheel on the other, while their men folks 
were putting the sickle in the harvest. They were not 
too genteel to be useful, nor their sons ashamed to 
shoulder a knapsack of home cakes. They were not of 
the " do'nt meddle with that gun Billy" stock. 

The officers who declined going to Cambridge were 

eel of lazy drones, lounging about my bar room doing 
nothing, but here is Hastings who never puts on his leg- 
gins and comes into the street without earning a dollar. 



GREENFIELD. 59 

among the first in respectability and esteem in the town. 
No one thought of passing Capt. Wells without uncov- 
ering his head in token of respect. But he and others 
thought it madness to attempt, in the then feeble state, 
impoverished means and small population of the colo- 
nies, to resist the soldiers of the mother country. They 
did not however lose the respect and confidence of their 
townsmen. 

Capt. Agrippa Wells, familiarly called Capt Grip, had 
seen service in the old French war, in a company called 
the Massachusetts Rangers ; he was taken captive and 
carried to Canada, where the Indians compelled him to 
run the gauntlet, (a favorite sport among the boys here, 
thirty years ago.) What he most complained of as be- 
ing particularly mortifying in this foot race was, the be- 
ing stripped and compelled to wear the chemise of an old 
squaw. Pah ! This was a little too much for the blood 
of as brave and fearless a hero, and as genuine a Yankee 
as ever trod the soil of New England. He was so nim- 
ble and active that he got through the gauntlet with lit- 
tle injury. An old squaw at the end of the line gave a 
more severe blow than any of the rest, which he, with 
his characteristic spirit, returned by giving her a sturdy 
kick. The Indians seemed to regard this as a 
laudable mark of spirit, for they applauded and took him 
into favor. 

He was sent to France from whence he got to Eng- 
land and thence home. He was enlisted in the Ran- 
gers by Capt. Porter, a recruiting officer who was here. 
Porter accidentally broke his sword in coming out of 
Aaron Denio's tavern. He commanded a company 
at the taking of Burgoyne. Hastings was there also. — 
He had been out occasionally through the season and 
had returned home sick ; but a requisition came for one 
half the militia to repair to Bennington, Burgoyne having 
imprudently moved so far inland as to render his situa- 
tion favorable for an effort on the part of the Yankee 



60 HISTORY OF 

troops to surround him. Hastings and Childs went out 
again. 

Capt. Wells returned from Cambridge on a furlough. 
He resided at the corner in the old tavern house where 
now stands the store of Hall <$• Co. Immediately after 
his return, Rev. Mr. Newton, whose predilections were 
rather bearing to the cause of the King, or supposed to 
be so, but at this period, as at all others, so great was his 
prudence and reserve, that his political views were not 
the occasion of any breach or trouble between him and 
his people, walked over to Capt. Wells' to inquire about 
the war. He found the family at tea. It is not to be 
supposed that at this time, so soon after the tea was 
thrown overboard, and it was almost an act of treason to 
drink it, that the patriotism of Capt. W. would allow him 
to partake of the beverage, but the presumption is, that 
it was procured for some female of the family on account 
of some medicinal property it was supposed to contain. 
Be this as it may, Mr. Newton inquired of Capt. Wells 
what they intended to do with the tories. " What do 
with them," said the Capt. bringing down his clenched 
hand upon the tea table with a force and energy which 
made Mr. N. start, and disturbed the equanimity, almost 
the equilibrium of the family board, and made teacups and 
other table furniture ring out a disturbed and discordant 

peal. " Do with 'em, d n 'em, we intend to hang 

the d Is." 

About this time, Mr. Newton made an exchange with 
Rev. Mr. Ashley of Deerfield, with whom he was inti- 
mate. Mr. A. favored the British cause, and it was 
thought by many that he had an undue influence over the 
mind of Mr. Newton, in relation to public affairs, and 

Note. — About this period, Capt W. was at the house 
of a neighbor in the w r est part of the town, and on being 
invited to drink a cup of tea, said, " No, I would sooner 
drink my children's hearts blood." 



GREENFIELD. 61 

that he was willing Mr. A. should take this opportunity 
to treat upon the subject by way of caution to the peo- 
ple. However, Mr. A. descanted more fully and freely 
on the subject and in a way and manner not at all suit- 
ed to their ideas.* 

As was usual, in the intermission season, most of the 
people remained at the house. The choice spirits and 
friends of the Revolution were soon together, and as us- 
ual the people collected around them. We can see in 
imagination the expression of their countenances, their 
animated gestures, and hear the hurried, determined lan- 
guage of this group. Among them we can see Capts. 
Childs and Wells, Capt. Isaac Newton, the Arms's, 
Smead's, Nims's, Allen's, Graves's, and many others. — 
Benjamin Hastings was there, and Samuel Hinsdale, Da- 
vid Smead, Esq. and Daniel Nash. These last were 
immediately chosen a committee to take measures in re- 
lation to Mr. Ashley's afternoon preaching. They pro- 
ceeded to fasten up the meeting house. 

Samuel Hinsdale had lived in Deerfield a near neigh- 
bor to Mr. Ashley and had a personal dislike to him. — 
As the time for the afternoon service approached he 
placed himself at the entrance of the door, and the rest 
of the committee near him. As Mr. Ashley proceeded 
to open the door, Hinsdale gave him a jog or jostle with 
his elbow, not exactly gentle and courteous, not precise- 
ly rude, like a violent push or shove, which would have 
thrown a man down or tumbled him on to or over the 
bystanders, but evidently not the result of accident, or a 
mere joggle, but what is termed a hunch. On its being 
repeated the second or third time, Mr. A. interrogated 
him as to his reasons for such rudo treatment, saying, 
" you should not rebuke an elder," &c. Hinsdale re- 

• Hutchinson, the Royal Governor, had sent out com- 
missions of the Peace, &c. liberally among the people, 
for the purpose of increasing the friends of the King. — 
Mr. Ashley had married a relative of Gov. Hutchinson, 
6* 



62 HISTORY OP 

plied, *'an elder, an elder, if you had not said you was 
an elder, I should have thought you was a poison su- 
mach." There was no preaching that afternoon. 

The spirit of the people was roused and their feelings 
excited to intensity by the aggressions of the British ; 
their love of liberty, and right, and independence knew 
neither slumber nor sleep ; it was not a lambent but a 
vivid and vehement flame. Recent events had set their 
hearts on fire. 

Soon after this, Mr. A. preached a sermon in his own 
pulpit, at Deerfield, in which he spoke of the doom of 
those Americans who had fallen at Lexington, as being 
fearful in the next world, and also spoke against the pa- 
triot cause. One member of the congregation, a Mr. 
D. not satisfied with the discourse, during the week fol- 
lowing, held a private consultation with a Mr. S. after- 
wards Col. S. of Conway, and on the Sabbath ensuing, 
Mr. Ashley, on attempting to enter his pulpit, found it 
spiked up. After several unsuccessful efforts to enter, 
he turned to Deacon A., a blacksmith, and requested 
him to go and get his hammer and undo the fastening. 
The deacon, with a very proper gravity, replied that he 
did not use his hammer on the Sabbath. An axe was 
eventually procured and the door opened. Mr. D. was 
in his seat seasonably to see the whole, and for thirty 
years kept his secret, as did also Col. S. 

During the continuance of the war, the towns were 
often called upon to furnish blankets, clothing, provis- 
ions, and soldiers. Repeated votes are found for rais- 
ing money for the hiring men for the service and for the 
other purposes mentioned, and for purchasing powder 
and lead for the use of the town. Votes were passed 
for many succeeding years Cor purchasing beef for the 
army. 

1776. Committees of correspondence, safety and in- 
spection were chosen in all the towns. This town 
agreed " to adopt the measures and instructions to our 



GREENFIELD. 63 

representatives as it is set forth in the newspapers to 
Boston representatives of May 20. Also that the pres- 
ent House of R. with the Council jointly acting be di- 
rected to proceed to form a Constitution, to be published 
&c before ratification." 

An act was passed against monopoly and oppression, 
by which the Selectmen of towns, and committees of 
correspondence, were authorised to fix and establish 
prices for the regulation of the sale of articles of com- 
mon use. The other New England States adopted the 
same measure. It seems from all the accounts we have 
of that period, that, besides contending with a powerful 
foe, the people had worse enemies to contend with 
among themselves. Speculators, actuated by the infer- 
nal spirit of avarice, (which withers and dries up every 
good feeling of the soul, under whose influence, men 
though living are dead to all but themselves,) oppressed 
and pyeyed upon the people, and lived upon their mise- 
ries in this day of trouble. 

The town added four to their committee of safety, 
among whom we find the names of the late Ebenezer 
Arms, and Capt. Isaac Newton. These committees 
were constantly on the alert. The price of every article 
of living had advanced, and the measures taken to regu- 
late prices, &c. were in a measure defeated by the de- 
preciation of the currency. 

Note. — The following are the prices of some articles 
fixed in Nov. 1776. Labor in summer, 3s per day ; 
Wheat 6s Sd ; Rye 4s 6d ; Corn 3s ; Peas 7s ; Beans 6s\ 
Spanish Potatoes Is 6d; Oats Is 9d; Winter Apples Is; 
Salt Pork 7d; Beef, grass fed, 3d; Stall 4d; Cheese 6d; 
Butter 9d; Flour £1 3s; Milk 2dqt.; Cider at press 4s; 
Mutton and Veal 3 l-2d; Dinners at taverns, of boiled 
meat or equivalent, 8d; Suppers or breakfasts of tea, 
coffee or chocolate 8d; Lodgings, (soldiers sleeping on 
the floor not to be considered such.) 4d; Flip or toddy 
made with N. E. Rum, 9d a mug; Cotton and Linen, 



64 HISTORY OF 

In 1777 the town voted to comply with the act against 
monopoly and oppression, and chose five men to prose- 
cute breaches thereof. At this time they were required 
to furnish shirts, stockings and other clothing for the ar- 
my in the proportion of one set to every seven males 
over sixteen years of age. Men for the army were hir- 
ed by the town, some for six and some for nine months. 

The following anecdote will furnish us with some 
idea of the almost unlimited power exercised by these 
committees of safety. A smoke had been occasionally 
seen rising from the thick woods on the east side of Fall 
river, perhaps opposite Russell's factory, or nearly so, 
and near where the road now runs. Accordingly the 
committee was notified, (Nash, Childs, Hastings, and A. 
Denio) who forthwith proceeded to the spot, and on 
making diligent search found a man by the name of 
Harrington, in a sort of cave or protected and sheltered 
place, and all the tools necessary for counterfeiting. — 
They took him directly to Northampton. Judge Haw- 
ley told them that the man could not be imprisoned in 
the jail, as it was then full of tories and could hold no 
more. He directed them to take him back to the pine 
woods, a distance of a mile or so, this side of the village, 
and administer as many lashes as they thought best and 
let him go. They accordingly repaired to the spot, and 
executed the sentence as directed. Hastings and the 
others, except Nash, gave light blows. Nash put on 
heavily, broke skin and brought blood at every stroke. — 
They then bathed his wounds with spirits which they 
brought for the purpose, and gave him some to drink. 

homespun, yard wide, best common sort, 3s 6d; Tow 
Cloth, good quality, yard wide, 2s 3d; Shoes, mens' 
neats foot leather, best, 7s 6d; Breeches, best deers 
leather, £2 2s. Beaver hats, best, £2 2s; Felts 7s; Ma- 
king full suit clothes, full trimmed, £1 4s; Boards, best 
white pine, at mill, £% 8s per M; Hay, English, best 
qual. 8s cwt. 



GREENFIELD. 65 

They made him promise never to be seen in this part of 
the country again and let him go. He thanked them 
heartily for their lenity and kindness, and departed. He 
was not again heard of. An ancient specimen of mod- 
ern Lynch Law. 

In Sept. 1777, the committees of safety west of Con- 
necticut river, received circulars from Gen. Gates, from 
his camp at Behmus' heights, informing them that Gen. 
Burgoyne had caused Skeensboro', (now Plattsburg) 
Forts Ann, George, and Edward, and the posts he had 
occupied south of Lake George, to be evacuated, and 
'• the artillery stores and provisions to be brought to his 
army at Nary Weight's mills, seven miles north of his 
camp, except some heavy cannon which are carried to 
five mile island in L. George— from all, it is evident 
the General's design is, to risque all upon one rash 
stroke. " The committees were called upon by this let- 
ter to send reinforcements without one moments delay. 

Immediately upon this call the militia assembled from 
all parts of New England, to stop the progress of Bur- 
goyne. A large proportion of the population of this 
town started immediately for the seat of war, leaving 
their families as they were, not turning back to take the 
farewell kiss or to bury their dead. Whole fields of 
grain, then ready for the sickle, were left unharvested, 
to rot. Here, in this then wild and almost secluded re- 
gion shone forth that unconquerable love of liberty, and 
the rights of man ; that determined spirit of opposition 
to oppression, which distinguished the pilgrim fathers. — 
The result was, the surrender of Burgoyne with ten 
thousand troops. 

To show more fully the troubles of these times, the 
preamble to an act passed in Connecticut is inserted 
here : — " Whereas the rapid and exorbitant rise upon 
the necessaries and conveniences of life in this day of 
public calamity and distress, is chiefly occasioned by 
monopolizers, the great Pest of Society, who prefer their 



66 HISTORY OF 

own private gain to the interest and safety of their coun- 
try, and which, if not prevented, threatens the Ruin and 
Destruction of the State, and the Committees from the 
several states of New England have recommended that 
the prices of the necessaries of life be limited as herein- 
after affixed, &c."* 

In 1778, the town voted to approve the confederation 
of the United States, and took into consideration a form 
of government for the State, sent out to the people. — 
Seventy three members of the town present. Five only 
approved of it and sixty-eight disapproved. ,£100 was 
raised for ammunition. 

* By this tariff the price of wheat was fixed at 6s; Rye 
3s 6d; Corn 3s; Wool 2s; Pork 5 to 7 score, 3 pence 1 
farthing, 7 to 10 3 1-2 pence, above ten 2d 3 farthings. — 
Grass fed beef, best quality not to exceed 24s; Good 
Flax lOd; Well tanned Leather Is 5d; Mens' good yarn 
Stockings not to exceed 6s; Potatoes, commonly called 
Spanish, of the best sort, not to exceed, in the fall, Is 4d, 
and at any other season, not over 2s; Good Coffee not to 
exceed Is 4d; Tallow 7 1-2; Good, yard wide, striped 
Flannels, 3s 6d; Rum not to exceed 6s 8d wholesale, 7s 
8d retail, allowing one penny a gallon for every ten miles 
transportation by land; N. E, 3s lOd prgal. pr hhd. 4s pr 
bid; best Muscovado Sugar 54s per 100. at the port of 
delivery, allowing 9d per mile for every ten miles, &c. 
&c. and 

Whereas, considering that Goods in general, Imported 
have of late, (owing to the unbounded avarice of some 
persons) been sold by wholesale at the exorbitant ad- 
vance of 500 or 600 per cent, from the prime cost, and 
recalled out at the unreasonable profit of 40 and 50 per 
cent, or more in addition thereto, &c. &c. The act pro- 
hibits the importer from taking at higher rate than the 
proportion of £275 sterling for what cost £100 in Eu- 
rope, for Woolen, coarse Linens, &c. — other goods $250 
for £100 — and limits the retailer to 20 percent, advance, 
forfeiting for any article sold at or under 20s a penalty 
of 20s; over that sum, forfeiture of the whole. 



GREENFIELD. 67 

In regard to the law for regulating prices, the follow- 
ing are stated for facts in the Journals of the day : — 

" The prosecuting officers have been called upon in 
vain to prosecute breaches of the law for regulating pri- 
ces. The spirit of it is violated every day by those who 
withhold what they have to sell ; and the Letter of it by 
those who sell what they have, and evasions of it are in- 
numerable. Many who were very ready to assist in 
making the law, have been as ready to break it, and con- 
spired with others to bring their own authority into de- 
rision. Horses are undoubtedly the internal produce of 
the State, yet they are sold, 3, 4 and 500 per cent, high- 
er than in 1774. What farmer will exert himself to 
raise beef when his lean horse will sell for more than 
his fat cattle 1 Leasing cattle for 999 years, selling 
an ordinary cow by guess at 1000 wt. pawning eight 
dollars for a gallon of rum, &c. are among the common 
evasions of this law. 

How will the middling and poorer sort of farmers pay 
their share of the expenses of this war, when they must 
give at the rate of two bushelis of wheat for every one 
that was purchased in '77 ; while those who have amas- 
sed great sums of money rejoice at having a double value 
stamped upon it, and anticipate the day when their neigh- 
bors farms must be exchanged for their own cash, to pay 
the public debt. (This breed of men is not extinct in 
1838.) It was said this law was designed to satisfy the 
army, but its effect is the reverse. They deem it rob- 
bing them of a great part of their pay which ought to be 
made good in full. Our currency has long been grow- 
ing more plenty and less valuable, and a law will as soon 

Note. — The following prices stated in Aug. 1779, 
show, on comparison with those of Nov. 1776, the de- 
preciation of the currency in the interval. Corn, bu. 
£3 12s; Rye £5 2s; Wheat £8 2s; Oats £1 16s; Cider 
£4; Hay, cwt. £1 10s; Labor £2 14s; Womens' labor, 
week, £2; Beef, lb. 5s 6d; Mutton and Veal 3s 6d; But- 



68 HISTORY OF 

convince people that it is as scarce, as that it is as pre- 
cious as it was in '74. Let us be content to raise the 
credit of our bills by the same degrees that it sunk, and 
not ruin public faith by setting it to work miracles. Let 
us make good our contracts with the army ; establish an 
equal mode of taxation; call for the money where it 
may be found, &c." 

In 17S0, the town voted that the committee who hired 
the nine months men, act discretionally about paying 
them. A committee was chosen to hire men for six 
months, and in compliance with the resolve of May 4, to 
pay for the clothing and blankets when called for. In 
July they voted to give the men that serve in the Conti- 
nental army, twenty shillings a month in addition to their 
wages, and one thousand dollars in paper money, for six 
months. 

What the population of the town then was, and their 
quota of men at the time when called for, I have not 
been able to ascertain. It had become extremely diffi- 
cult to procure men to serve ; thermeans of the country 
had become exhausted ; there was a scarcity of money, 
men, and every thing else but a determination to be free. 

The amount of money raised by taxation was so 
great as to be extremely burihensome to the people ; to 
which, add the grievances by the wicked acts of those 
bloodsuckers, the monopolizers and speculators, (who 
were found every where, and so utterly unprincipled and 
depraved, as to be preying upon the poverty of the peo- 
ple, and the pittance of the soldier fighting the battles of 
his country,) and the depreciation of the currency, which 
rendered the nominal amount of taxation excessive. 

ter lis; Cheese 5s 6d; Wool £1 4s; Mens* shoes 61; 
Stockings 31 12s; Shirts, Tow cloth, 41 16s. In June, 
'79, farmers produce had advanced in the ratio of 36 1-2 
to 1; W. I. Goods as 41—1—9 to 1. Labor as 15 to 1 
of the price in Marcb, same year. 



GREENFIELD. 60 

The true value of appropriations, &c. may be estimated 
by reference to the subjoined table ; the figures indicate 
the number of dollars in continental currency, equivalent 
to 100 in gold and silver. To April, 1780, the value 
was fixed as stated below, by the act of Mass. 





1777 


1778 


1779 


1780 


January, 


105 


325 


742 


2934 


February, 


107 


350 


868 


3322 


March, 


109 


375 


1000 


3736 


April, 


112 


400 


1104 


4000 


May, 


115 


400 


1215 


3430 


June, 


120 


400 


1342 


6650 


July, 


125 


425 


1477 


6900 


August, 


150 


450 


1630 


7000 


September, 


175 


475 


1800 


7100 


October, 


275 


500 


2030 


7200 


November, 


300 


545 


2308 


7250 


December, 


310 


634 


2595 


7400 



In 1781, one dollar of specie was equal to $1,87 in 
new emission bills, from Feb. 27, to May 1 ; 2,25 to 
May 25; 3,00 to June 15; 4,00 to Oct. 1. Below these 
dates the depreciation approached to total worthlessness. 

In October of this year, £.155 in new emission bills, 
was raised to purchase beef for the army, to comply with 
a resolve of the General Court of Sept. 25. In Dec. 
" Voted to the three months' men who served under 
Capt. I. Newton, fifty shillings each, as a bounty for their 
hire, in the new emission money of the State." 

A brief sketch of the character of Capt. Newton and 
his Revolutionary services may be found under the title, 
Biographical Sketches. 

The winter of 1780 has become memorable, and by 

Note. — The whole expenses of the Revolutionary 
war, to the States, were in paper money, #359,547,027, 
estimated in specie at #135,193,703. 



70 HISTORY OF 

old people often referred to as the " hard winter." The 
19th May, of the same year, is memorable in the annals 
of N. England, as the " dark day, 1 ' and is an epoch in iti 
history. The darkness commenced before noon and 
continued through the day, and until midnight, was great* 
er than usual. It seemed to come with clouds from the 
south, and extended from Blaine to N. Jersey. In many 
places, common print could not be read ; the time of 
day perceived by clocks or watches, or house work be 
done without candles ; the birds and fowls retired to 
roost, and the cocks were crowing as at day break, and 
every thing assumed the gloom of night. 

In January, 1781, the sum of three hundred pounde 
was raised to buy beef for the army, and a committee 
chosen to hire men. Those who owed the town or had 
collected money, bore the depreciation of the currency, 
by a vote of the town. 

Justice. — In the month of May, the town passed a 
vote to "have a Justice of the Peace," and David Smead 
was appointed. An Esquire was then a much more im- 
portant personage than at this day, and the title, as well 
as all of a military kind, of themselves, conferred dis- 
tinction, and were a warrant of merit, and a sure recom- 
mendation of character, a certificate undoubted. This 
appointment'at that day is of itself alone, an evidence to 
us, that he was a man of intelligence, talents and worth. 
He was much resorted to for council and advice in all 
cases of difficulty between neighbors, as also for infor- 
mation on public affairs, aB was after him, his son, the 
late Hon. Solomon Smead. 

In the intermission on Sundays at the old north meet- 
ing house, on Trap plain, most of the people tarried, and 
a collection might always be seen, of which he was the 
centre, or focal point about which all gathered, for the 
people looked up to him with a respect amounting to 
reverence, and as to an oracle, for information on all 



GREENFIELD. 71 

subjects. His tall and venerable figure is still remem- 
bered by some of the living, by one, at least. 

His three sons, the late Hon. Solomon Smead, David 
Smead, frequently called Master David, from his having 
been one of the earliest school teachers in town, and 
Maj. Julia Smead, after their father's decease, occupied 
together, in common, and in harmony, the same fine 
meadow farm, (being at one period, perhaps the best real 
estate in town,) until within a few years previous to the 
decease of the first named, a sample of the patriarchal 
age. Another son, Benjamin, recently a member of 
the N. Y. Legislature, learned the art of printing of 
Thomas Dickman, Esq. and established a paper at 
Brattleboro', called the Federal Galaxy, about the year 
1799. 

July 9. Money was raised this year to pay for horses 
sent into the service the last year, and the town refused 
to purchase their "quota of beef demanded by the 
court." 

July 26. The vote was reconsidered, and the asses- 
sors directed to act discretionally in making a rate suffi- 
cient for it. 

They also voted to raise eight militia men to go to 
West Point for three months, and to give ten silver dol- 
lars a month as a hire to each man for his services ; the 
town to receive the wages. The late Capt. Isaac New- 
ton commanded a company at West Point at this time. 

Gill set off.— In December of this year, a vote was 
passed to set off the people the east side of Fall river as 
a town, to come to the centre of the river. Moses Bas- 
com, Timothy Childs, and others, whose names have 
been mentioned heretofore, resided in that part of the 
town, and were prominent men in their day. Gill was 
not incorporated until 1795. 

Warning Out. — One circumstance in the history of 
the early settlements, distinguishes their times in a par- 
ticular manner from our own. Frequent entries are 



72 HISTORY OF 

made on the records of the names of persons who had 
come to reside in town, with the time when and the 
place from whence they came. In many instances, in- 
dividuals were notified to leave town, where they had on- 
ly been for a few days, without having given an intima- 
tion of remaining. They were warned by the Consta- 
ble, who had a warrant from the Selectmen, in which it 
was stated that they had not received the consent of the 
town to become residents, &c. Mr. Worthington, in 
his History of Dedham, says the reason for this pro- 
ceeding is obvious. They might become expensive, 
and a greater objection, they might occupy the places 
wanted for their own sons, who might thereby be obliged 
to emigrate — possibly they might feel that the descend- 
ants of such puny a stock as they could boast of, would be 
in danger of pollution by the free introduction of stran- 
gers. It is probable, however, that it was to prevent 
their becoming chargeable, or gaining a residence, and 
in conformity to a law then existing. Mr. W. says — 
The first settlers required a strict scrutiny to be made 
into every man's character who was proposed for admis- 
sion, &c. A committee waited upon them to inquire 
their motives for being in town, and if answered that it 
was for the purpose of settlement, they asked them some 
such questions as these : — Who are you sir 1 Where 
from ? What worldly substance have you ? Do you ap- 
prove our Church government ? Can you assure us you 
will not become chargeable to us? &c. The church 
would be still more strict in its inquiries as to the reli- 
gious feelings, doctrines, &c. of members proposed. — 
The old law authorised towns to warn out persons who 
had not acquired a legal settlement, and grew, perhaps, 
out of this jealousy of strangers. Mr. W. very ingen- 
iously traces to this source, that peculiar trait in New 
England character, impertinent curiosity, so generally 
noticed by our own countrymen and foreigners, and 
that it grew out of the attempt to establish a pure church 



GREENFIELD. 73 

and a pure Commonwealth, and that this impudence was 
necessary in those days, dictated by policy, &c— 
Doubted. 

In 1636, the Court of the Colony of Plymouth enact- 
ed that " noe person or persons, hereafter, shall be ad- 
mitted to live and inhabite within the Government, with- 
out the leave and likeing of the Governour or two of the 
assistants at least." 

Period From 1782 to 1786.— The war of the Rev- 
olution closed in '82. The increase of population in the 
State the last eight years had been only ten thousand ; 
if peace had prevailed during that period it would have 
been perhaps ten times as great.* 

The subject of the sequestered land in Deerfield was 
again brought before the town, and they voted " to make 
a trial for a certain parcel of land the town of Deerfield 
have taken, in manner as followeth: — that David Sniead, 
Esq. is chosen to act discretionally for the town to bring 
on a trial before the General Court, and make report to 
the town of his proceedings, and likewise to keep an 
account of his expenses in said business and lay them 
before the town for allowance." 

A singular vote is found on the records of the year 
'83. " Voted that three fourths of a cord is a middling 
load of wood, agreeable to the agreement of the town 
with Rev. Mr. Newton." This was rather small busi- 
ness — not even middling— and gladly would I have been 
spared placing it here, but as an author, from whom I 
have freely quoted, says in relation to the Shay's insur- 
rection, " History, the mirror of the past, reflects with 
painful fidelity, the dark as well as the bright objects 

* In a continental tax made this year, 207 persons were 
taxed, (including Gill) — 17 non residents; sum required, 
£459 16s 8don the polls; 2s 9d 3 farthings on each £— 
highest tax, Capt. Eben. Wells £55 12s real; £9 9s per- 
sonal. He lived where Esq. E. Root now does.. 
7* 



74 HISTORY OF 

from departed years." It is more noticeable, as Mr. 
Newton, sometime previous, relinquished ten dollars of 
his salary and gave twenty for the use of the poor. 

Division of the County. — The subject of a divis- 
ion of the County of Hampshire, was agitated in 1784, 
and this town voted to join with the neighboring towns 
in petitioning for it. 

As a dispute had existed for some years between the 
town and Mr. Newton, about the quantity of wood he 
should have, it was settled in '86, by a vote allowing 
him forty-four cords annually, of good merchantable 
wood, chestnut, pine, hemlock, to be excepted, " provid- 
ed he will except it." 

For a long period after the war, as the military spirit 
did not pass away with the occasion which had roused it 
to action, the annual reviews or musters of the troops in 
the country, one of which was generally held here or in 
the immediate vicinity, drew together great numbers, 
from all the surrounding country, and the border towns 
in Vermont. On these days there was, and still is, 
a great deal going forward. The female sex formerly 
did not hesitate to attend these displays in liberal num- 
bers. To be a soldier then was a distinction by no means 
sought to be avoided, as now. The Revolutionary sol- 
diers and officers usually attended the training and re- 
view days, and encouraged the young aspirants for mil- 
itary honor, and at all times excited their ambition with 
oft told stories of the recent war, of hair breadth 'scapes, 
and how the fields were won. 

Note. — Hampshire and Berkshire voted together for 
Mem. Cong, as late as to 1789. - The population of the 
State in '86 was 356,582,— black, 4,371. Boston con- 
tained 2100 houses— 14,600 inhabitants. 



GREENFIELD 75 



CHAPTER V. 

From the close of the war to 1789. — Insurrection under 
Daniel Shays 

" And every one that was in distress, and every one 
that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, 
gathered themselves unto him, (David at the cave of 
Adullam) and he became Captain over them." — The 
Old Testament. 

We have seen that the number of those who doubted 
the safety and expediency of the effort of the colonies to 
free themselves from the British yoke, was very small, 
and that the people of this town generally imbibed that 
spirit of resistance to the oppressive acts of that govern- 
ment which so generally prevailed ; and though few in 
number, and poor, did their duty, and contributed all in 
their power for the advancement of the good and glori- 
ous cause of independence. 

Some body must work. The hard work of the Rev- 
olution was most of it done by hired soldiers, and the 
hard work of the present day is much of it done by 
what are called hirelings. The soldiers of the Revolu- 
tion had little to gain by the change in a pecuniary view. 
They were as staunch friends of liberty as their richer 
neighbors. While the poor are looked upon by the rich 
and prosperous as a degraded class, fit only to do the 
drudgery, as a burthen to society, a necessary evil, too 
often oppressed and dispised ; it is by such that the 
battles are fought by sea and land, and the hard work is 
done. Nothing actually degrades men but ignorance 
and vice. 

There was no superfluity of money or any other per- 
sonal property in the country when the war commenced 
It found the people poor at first, and kept and left them 



76 HISTORY OF 

so ; not only so, but a great public debt pressing upon 
the government, and private debts upon individuals, like 
the fabled night-mare upon her sleeping victim. To use 
the language of another, " After eight years of war, 
Massachusetts stood with the splendor of triumph in Re- 
publican poverty, bankrupt in resources, with no reve- 
nue but of an expiring currency, and no metal in her 
treasury more precious than the continental copper, bear- 
ing the devices of union and freedom.*' 

Foreign goods, superfluities and luxuries had become 
plenty and cheap, and the people, did then, as they do 
now, buy too many on credit. In 1784, more than two 
thousand actions had been entered in the County of 
Worcester, then containing a population of 50,000 only, 
and in '85, seventeen hundred were entered. The num- 
ber in Hampshire County was as large or larger. The 
full view of a Sheriff when you are suspicious he may 
have a precept against you is rather startling — not to 
say horrible ; a genuine dun is sufficiently uncomforta- 
ble, and when oft repeated, is exceedingly ungraciously 
received by the receiver, especially if couched in the un- 
feeling, importunate, impudent language and manner, 
and half devouring air of some men, it becomes still 
more loathsome and disgusting than even the walls of a 
dungeon. There is no redeeming quality in a dun, and 
he who is often exposed to it, (and few are not) 
although he grows callous and apathetic by the repeti- 
tion, may well exclaim with the humble Cowper, 

" O for a lodge in some vast wilderness, 
Some boundless contiguity of shade. 
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart. 
It does not feel for man." 

Thanks to the benevolent spirit of our age, that mon- 
strous power, too often exercised in malice and revenge, 
and a greater than any individual has in any other case 
(the power of imprisoning an innocent man [for debt) 
of taking away his liberty, is in effect, passed away. 



GREENFIELD. 77 

To return from our digression — Immense numbers of 
suits had been commenced ; executions hung over the 
people ; •• the debtor waked to thoughts of gyve and 
jail ;" lands and goods were seized and sold at great sa- 
crifice and ruin, irremediable ruin stared all, or nearly 
all, full in front. The burthen of taxation was enor- 
mous.. 

A convention was held in this town in 1781, by com- 
mittees from seven towns in this county, " to take into 
consideration some of the difficulties attending public af- 
fairs, particularly the taking off the tender from the new 
emission money, as it was proposed by Congress, and 
remedy the depreciation of the old currency, and defin- 
ed as a fixed and permanent medium of trade, &c. also 
to consider the complaints respecting the wages and 
clothing of the army." A committee of a convention 
held at Hatfield in 1782, reported a list of grievances, 
upon which the convention was nearly equally divided. 
One was also held at Deerfield in 1783, to consider up- 
on the manner in which taxes were collected and proper- 
ty sold therefor. They issued a circular calling upon 
people to assemble and assist in releasing from jail an 
individual confined for assisting in stopping an auction 
sale of property taken for taxes. 

Artful men, to answer their own wicked purposes, 
fanned the flame of rebellion, and desperation and mad- 
ness seized the minds of the people with unyielding and 
remorseless gripe. 

" He that saw 
His patrimonial timber cast its leaf, 
Sells the last scantling and transfers the price % 

To some shrewd sharper ere it buds again. 
Estates are landscapes gazed upon awhile, 
Then advertised and auctioneered away. 
Improvement, too, the idol of the age, 
Is fed with many a victim." 

It is scarcely surprising, says a writer, that a suffering 



78 HISTORY OF 

and deluded people should have attempted relief, with- 
out considering that the misery they endured was the 
necessary result of the confusion of years of warfare." 
They rebelled because they were not made of wood and 
stone, but had feelings, appetites and passions ; but they 
did not consider that neither the law nor the constitution 
were to blame. They did not duly appreciate the caus- 
es which had produced the existing state of things, and 
their natural and necessary results. The government 
could not extinguish the claims of creditors, nor con- 
sistently delay the collection of taxes. 

1786. Gov. Bowdoin asked of the Legislature to 
make provision for the public debt of one and a half 
million, in order to maintain the credit of the State; it 
must be raised or some arrangement made with the cred- 
itors. The Legislature doubted the ability of the people 
as well as their disposition, and hesitated, while old tax- 
es remained uncollected. A law of '81, authorised the 
treasurer to issue warrants for a tax sufficient to pay 
principal and interest for any year, even though no tax 
act passed. One million, at least, was then wanted. — 
The proper debt of the State was then five millions. 
The Legislature, however, directed the Treasurer to 
suspend warrants for the sums required to pay holders 
of public securities, for which the taxes had been pledg- 
ed, and which were then due. The Representatives 
were censured — their excuse was, the burdens of their 
constituents, and the impossibility of paying. 

They voted a tax on polls and estates, to comply with 
the requisitions made by Congress. At the same ses- 
sion, a motion made to issue paper and make it a tender, 
was negatived by five sixths of the House. 

The people held conventions and passed rash and 
threatening resolves; threatening the Legislature and 
denouncing the courts as engines of oppression. They 
complained — 

1st. Of the amount of taxes, and that so large assess- 
ments should be made at such short intervals. 



GREENFIELD. 79 

2d. That such large sums were allowed to the Con- 
gress. 

3d. That so much was paid to the soldiers, who they 
said might wait. 

4. The fees of lawyers and the costs of Courts. 

5. They objected to the Senate as a needless and ex- 
pensive branch. 

6. The high salaries of some public officers, and re- 
ferred to the services of Masschusetts in the war, which 
should excuse her from paying so largely. 

Many other causes of grievance were alleged and in- 
sisted upon. These things had been spoken of, and the 
complaints of the people became more and more loud 
until '86, when the storm which had been so long gath- 
ering, like a black cloud, big with the waters of Heav- 
en, burst, and sent forth its accumulated contents, not of 
water, reader, but of noise and wind. Like the winds 
imprisoned by iEolus, fabled king of storms and tem- 
pests, who had hid them in caverns, and laid mountains 
upon them, to restrain their headlong fury, for a long time 
roaring within their limits, impatient of confinement, 
when at the call of the angry goddess Juno, he, with 
his inverted spear, smote the mountain side and gave 
them vent, they all rushed out, with fury, now uncon- 
trolled, and formed into companies, (agmine facto) pas- 
sed over the sea in giddy whirls, disjointing and dispers- 
ing the Trojan fleet far and wide over the waste of wa- 
ters. 

They threatened and talked largely, and boasted of 
what they would do. Doubtless there were many 
among them who dreamed of office ; who, if they did not 
shout like exulting Adonijab, " I will be king," yet had 
an eye to filling their pockets in the general confusion, 
and if they had done so, would have done no more than 
many a heartless and shaving speculator does in our 
own days, for so greedy are some among us, as to dis- 
regard the voice of natural feeling and the rights of oth- 



80 HISTORY OF 

ers. and act as though the idea of responsibility and ac- 
countability were blotted from the creed of the human 
race. On every side is heard the voice of complaint of 
Overreaching, wrong, injustice and oppression. 

"Man's inhumanity to man, 
Makes countless thousands mourn.' » 

Large numbers of people assembled in the counties 
of Berkshire, Hampshire and Worcester, to prevent the 
sitting of the courts. In the instructions of the town of 
Dedham to their representatives, speaking of the prac- 
tice of lawyers, they say, — " If they cannot be effectual- 
ly regulated, we then desire the order of lawyers to be 
totally abolished, and if a project be brought forward to 
relieve us from our present difficulties by means of a pa- 
per currency, treat it with the most decided abhorrence. 
Encourage manufactures and do what you can to pre- 
vent the introduction of foreign luxuries." Pretty good 
doctrines these, and well worthy attention at this day; 
the reverse only serve to make the trader a lordling at 
the expense of the consumer. 

The prejudice against lawyers in early times was 
much greater than at present, and it seems certain, that 
one of this profession who buys notes, for the purpose 
of commencing suits, as was formerly the practice, 
brings groundless actions, or for small and unworthy 
cause, and in every case where opportunity presents, 
without regard to any other principle than getting money, 
is capable of, and does more mischief than any other de- 
scription or class of men, and worthy only of public in- 
dignation and contempt. 

No reason is perceived why an honorable and humane 
lawyer may not be as useful a man in his sphere as any 
other citizen, nor why some of this profession should put 
on airs of superior consequence. The arrogance and 
assuming of some of this professional class of men, are 
entitled only to ridicule. They, however, are not alone. 



GREENFIELD. 81 

These ideas may be too old fashioned for the genteel 
reader, and the notions he may entertain of the dignity 
which should pertain to the professions and to trade, and 
for the distinctions he fancies should exist in society. — 
But the day has dawned, and now is, when the few rotten 
remnants of aristocratic feeling existing among us, and 
those who endeavor to encourage and sustain them, are 
alike fading away. May the repose of that feeling be 
eternal. 

To superior talent, intelligence and worth, combined 
with true benevolence of character, unassuming, free 
from ostentation, we cheerfully bow and accord their 
due. To the preposterous claims made for distinction 
by any profession, by wealth, by a brighter button or a 
better coat, unattended with superior worth, even accom- 
panied by gentility, falsely so called, the common sense 
of mankind will put a veto. 

While the elements of confusion were at work among 
the people, and in the midst of these troubles, appeared 
one Daniel Shays, a man of considerable bravery, and 
some experience, having been an officer in the late war. 
He was active and ambitious, plausible in his manners, 
but very deficient in education, as his official letters 
prove, " which bid defiance alike to government, gram- 
mar and good spelling." He was in the battle of Bun- 
ker Hill, at the taking of Burgoyne, and had served un- 
der Lafayette. Whether, like Absolom and Adonijah, 
he thought within himself that he would be King, or like 
Robespierre and Cromwell, to found a military common- 
wealth, does not appear. Be this as it may, like the 
good King David, soon after he began his march with a 
small number of followers — 

" Every one that was in distress and every one that 
was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gath- 
ered themselves unto him and he became captain over 
them." 

A considerable body of insurgents, estimated at near 
S 



82 HlSTORt OF 

fifteen hundred, all armed, had assembled at Northamp- 
ton and took possession of the Court House, and pre- 
vented the sitting of the Courts. Similar proceedings 
took place in other Counties. A proclamation issued 
by the Governor had little effect. The legislature pas- 
sed laws to relieve the people ; an act for easing their 
burthens, for collecting back taxes in specific articles ; 
for making real and personal estate a tender in discharge 
of executions, &c. and for making processes less expen- 
sive, and tendering pardon to the insurgents. These 
were ascribed to weakness or timidity, and did not pro- 
duce the desired effect. Shays, with a few hundred 
followers, appeared at Springfield and took possession 
of the court house ; a petition was presented to the 
Court requiring them not to proceed with business, and 
both parties retired for that time. 

From this place they sent circulars to some of the 
towns, as appears by the following, found among the pa- 
pers of the town of Colerain. 

c ' To the inhabitants of the Town of Cold Reign Gen 
We would inform you that we have about 2000 now at 
arms, on the ground, and that we are not sufficient to 
obtain our redress of Grievances of the Supreme Court 
would therefore Invite you to March Imediately to Head 
Quarters Now in Springfield with Arms Amunition and 
provisions to the Relief for the Salvation of our Country 
Depends upon our Exertions at Arms for the Lord will 
Deliver his people if he will that they should do it" 

John Powers, Chairman of Committee. 
Test Thos. Amsden, Clerk. 
Springfield, Sept. 27, 1786. 

The excitement in this part of the country was very 
great, and the mobbers, as they were commonly called, 
were joined by many individuals from Colerain, Leyden, 
and other towns in this vicinity, with a few, and but a 
few, from this town. The people here, were, as a mass, 
on the side of the government. Shay's men were dis- 



GREENFIELD. 83 

tinguished by wearing green boughs in their hats as a 
badge of party. 

The militia in Hampshire and Berkshire were order- 
ed out in considerable numbers. When the government 
found that it was necessary to be serious and put an end 
to the mischievous frolics of Shays and others, between 
4 and 5000 troops were raised and put under the com- 
mand of Gen. Lincoln ; twelve hundred were from 
Hampshire County alone. The mob assembled in the 
winter at Springfield, where Gen. Shepard had been or- 
dered to post himself to protect the U. S. Arsenal. The 
number under Shepard at this time was about fifteen 
hundred. Shays and his party were disposed to take the 
arsenal under their own care and keeping, and this they 
meant to do before Shepard arrived with his army. — 
Shays had about eleven hundred men who had marched 
with him from Pelham. He was joined by Eli Parsons, 
from Berkshire, by a party of four hundred, who had as- 
sembled in West Springfield, and posted themselves at 
the north parish in Springfield. 

Sleighs loaded with " mobbers" in considerable num- 
bers, passed through this town to the scene of action 
where all were concentrating, and many citizens of this 
town were in the action, on the side of the government. 
A deep snow was on the ground, with a thick crust. — 
The following version of the almost mock battle, is from 
Holmes' A. Annals which I transcribe, not supposing I 
can improve it by putting it in different language. 

" About four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th, 
(January) Shepard perceived Shays advancing on the 
Boston road, towards the Arsenal, with his troops in 
open column. He sent one of his aids with two other 

Note. — At this time one Luke Day had about 400 
men at W. Springfield, and Shays expected his co-oper- 
ation, but Day found good reason for assigning another 
day for the attack upon the arsenal than Shays had fixed, 
and did not stir in the matter. 



84 HISTORY OP 

gentlemen, several times, to know the intention of the 
enemy, and to warn them of their danger. Their an- 
swer purported that they would have the barracks, and 
they immediately marched forward to within 250 yards 
of the arsenal. A message was again sent to inform them 
that the militia were posted there by order of the Gov- 
ernor and of Congress, and that if they approached 
nearer they would be fire don. 

'•That," said one of the leaders, "is all we want," and 
they advanced a hundred yards farther. Shepard now 
gave orders to fire, but he ordered the two first shots to be 
directed over their heads. This discharge, quickening 
instead of retarding their approach, the artillery was lev- 
elled against the centre of their column. A cry of mur- 
der instantly arose from the rear of the insurgents and 
their whole body was thrown into total confusion, Shays 
attempted to display his column, but in vain. His troops 
retreated precipitately — mostly in the direction of Lud- 
low, about ten miles, leaving three of their men dead 
and one wounded on the field." 

The way of transgressors is hard. They scattered 
here and there over the snows ; the crust was not suffi- 
ciently hard to bear them up, but hindered their flight 
and sorely mangled their shins. It is perhaps singular 
that all those killed and the one wounded, who died the 
next day belonged to this part of the country. Two of 
them, Ezekiel Root and Ariel Webster, were from this 
town ; Jabez Spicer from Leyden, and John Hunter 
from Shelburn. These men rose on account of the tax- 
ation, doubtless believing they were engaged in the cause 
of freedom. An individual from this town by the name 
of Chaloner, engaged on the government side, one of 
whose daughters is still here,* had both arms shot off 
while swabbing a cannon. He afterwards foilowed the 
business of school teaching till his death. 

*Mrs. Newell, the wife of Mr, David Newell, 



GREENFIELD. 85 

When Chaloner was disabled by losing his arms, the 
swab was also blown away and destroyed. Nothing 
daunted by this dreadful disaster, Deacon Harroun of 
Colerain, immediately took his place and thrust his mit- 
tens into the cannon the length of his arm and thus sup- 
plied the place of the lost swab, exclaiming at the same 
time, "never mind it boys, they hav n't killed us all yet." 

Capt. Agrippa Wells of this town of whom we have 
had occasion to make honorable mention as a staunch 
whig and patriot in the war of the Revolution, had com- 
mand of a company from this section, under Shays. — 
When the mobbers fled from before the government men 
at Springfield, he stood almost alone, while his company 
as well as the others, had taken to flight, waving his 
sword and calling upon the retreating soldiers to halt, in 
a voice which was heard all around and far away over 
the snows, reproaching them with their cowardice and 
pusillanimity. The simple fact that such a patriot as 
he unquestionably was, who had fought for the King 
and then for the freedom of his native land, willing at all 
times to pour out his blood like water for the defence of 
the right, should engage in this affair, conclusively shows 
that the hardships of the people were beyond endurance, 
and that he considered the measures of government op- 
pressive, and willingly engaged in what he considered a 
second war of independence, and to fight his country's 
battles o'er again. 

The main body of the mobbers took post at Pelham ; 
Gen. Lincoln at Hadley. From Pelham they addressed 
a petition to the General Court, and afterwards remov- 
ed to Petersham, which, Lincoln learning; he by one of 
the most indefatigable marches ever performed in Amer- 
ca, leaving Hadley at eight o'clock, evening, reach- 
ed N. Salem at 2 o'clock next morning. The weather 
was extremely severe ; a storm of snow was falling and 
fast rilling the roads, and the route was hilly. The wind 
was blowing a gale from the north, and the country so 
8* 



86 HISTORY OF 

thinly settled as to afford small chance of protection from 
the cold or occasional shelter by the way. Under all 
these discouragements, they advanced thirty miles with 
scarcely a halt. At nine in the morning their front was at 
Petersham. "Had an army dropped from the clouds, the 
consternation could not have been greater," so unex- 
pected was their coming. Before this exhausted and 
half frozen body of men, the insurgents fled with the ut- 
most confusion and trepidation like a flock of sheep. 

One hundred and fifty were taken prisoners — of the 
rest, some retired to their homes, others to different 
States. The leaders ultimately took refuge in Yermont. 
In the affair at Springfield was a company of about sev- 
enty from this town, under Capt. Moses Arms, with 
whom also were some from neighboring towns. These 
were on the side of government. There was about the 
same number of Shays' men under Capt. Foot, from 
what is now Gill. Arms' company was composed of 
volunteers and spoken of as one of the finest on the hill. 
Maj. Nash of Shelburn, and Tubal Nash of this town, 
were officers under him. Another party started from 
here afterwards to reinforce them, among whom was the 
late Ezekiel Bascom, Lemuel Hastings and Solomon 
Smead. They stopped at Hadley at night, and were 
taken by a party of Shays' men, under Foote, and plun- 
dered of all their provisions. To this party, probably 
belonged a gentleman recently deceased, who, with his 
brother and others, set off from a town in this vicinity, 
after setting up all night to make nutcakes and prepare 
for the occasion. Their horses and other property, to- 
gether with their cakes, were taken from them. Capt. 
Foote was afterwards sued for these aggressions and 
compelled to refund. 

Previous to the action at Springfield, Capt. Buffington 
of Worthington, who had known Shays in the Revolu- 
tionary war, rode forward to meet him, and remonstrat- 
ed with him upon the folly of his undertaking, but to no 



GREENFIELD. 87 

purpose. They were both Captains in the Revolution. 
The late Col. Eliel Gilbert, and others from this town, 
were under Buffington in the Cavalry, and accompanied 
him in his tour about the county to quell the mobbers. 
Col. G. afterwards served with the four months' men in 
Berkshire. Shays rode at Springfield, a beautiful white 
horse belonging to a Mr. Allen of this town, who was of 
his party. 

A very considerable part of the population of Colerain 
belonged to the Shays party. Upon hearing of the death 
of the three men at Springfield, a great excitement was 
caused, and a large number was soon collected. Dea- 
con Harroun, before mentioned, and others on the side 
of the government, who had gone out with him from 
there, did not consider it safe to return home, so great 
was the tumult, and they stopped for some days in this 
town. 

Commissioners were soon appointed, of whom Gen. 
Lincoln was one, whose duty it was to offer pardon to 
the insurgents on certain conditions.* 

Gen. Lincoln came into this town with about five 
hundred men, among whom were Buffington and other 
officers. Buffington quartered his men in the village 
for a time; and Lincoln at Reuben Wells' inn, where 
Mr. Goodman now lives, in the north meadows, where 
the rebels were summoned to appearand take the oaths 
of allegiance. The most part in this section complied 
with the terms. Among those who demurred about at- 
tending when called upon by the soldiers who were sent 
around, was the late Mr. Sylvanus Nash, and Mr. 
Thomas Billings, both worthy men. Mr. B. lived at 
Music Hill, just beyond Nash's Mills. One of these, 
after going part way with the soldiers, altered his mind 
and escaped from them ; the other engaged to wait up- 

• Seven hundred and ninety took the benefit of the of- 
fered grace. 



88 HISTORY or 

on the commissioners, also altered his mind, concluding 
not to do as he said he would. 

A fine black mare, belonging either to Buffington or 
one of his men, became so lame while here as to be use- 
less, and the white horse belonging to Mr. A. which 
Shays had rode at Springfield, was pressed into the ser- 
vice, willing or unwilling, and went through the cam- 
paign over all this part of the country, to bring in the 
mobbers to take the oaths. 

In Bernardston, a man by the name of Jason Par- 
rnenter, was hotly pursued by a party of the soldiers for 
the purpose of arrest. He turned upon his pursuers, 
shot at and killed one of them, whose name was Walker. 
Parmenter was arrested, tried and convicted for this of- 
fence. He went to the gallows with a rope about his 
neck ; a pardon was then read to him and he was so 
entirely overcome as to faint away. The insurrection 
had then subsided. 

Eli Parsons issued a circular to the people of Berk- 
shire, dated Feb. 13, 1787, by which it would seem that 
he possessed the characteristics of Robespierre, or was 
such an one as Sallust describes Catiline to have been 
two thousand years ago. 

"Berkshire, Feb. 13, 1787. 
Friends and Fellow Sufferers of the County of Berk- 
shire — Will you now tamely suffer your arms to be ta- 
ken from you, your estates to be confiscated and even 
swear to support a constitution and form of Government 
and likewise a code of Laws which common sense and 
your consciences declare to be iniquitous and cruel, and 
can you bear to see and hear the yeomanry of this com- 
monwealth being hacked and cut to pieces by the cruel 
and merciless tools of tyrannical Power and not Resent 
it even unto Relentless blood shed— Would to God I 
had the Tongue of a ready Writer that I might Impress 
on your minds the Idea of the Obligation, you as citizens 



GREENFIELD. 89 

of a Republican Government are under to Support those 
rights and Privileges that the God of Nature hath enti- 
tuled you to! Let me 'now persuade you by all the ties of 
friendship, which natural Affection Inspires the human 
Heart, Immediately to turn out and Assist your Right — 
the first step I would Recommend is to destroy Shep- 
ard's Army, then Proceed to the County of Berk- 
shire as we are now collecting, at New Lincoln at York 
Stale and Pownal in Vermont State, with a Determina- 
tion to Carry Our Point if Fire, Blood and Carnage will 
Effect it. Therefore we Beg that Every Friend will 
Imediately Proceed to the County of Berkshire and 
Help us to Burgoyne Lincoln and his army — I beg this 
may Immediately be circulated Through your County. 
I am Gent, in Behalf of myself and Other Officers your 
Humble servant. ELI PARSONS.'' 

Parsons afterwards resided at Bennington, Vt. retired, 
and in a miserable hut in the woods — very destitute. 
From there he emigrated to a town a few miles beyond 
Utica, where he became possessed of a valuable farm. 
He is represented to have been of fine, dignified personal 
appearance. 

Shays was a native of Hopkinton in this State, born 
in 1747. He sold a sword presented to him in 17S0, 
by Lafayette, and received assistance in the way of 
alms, in the streets of Worcester, which he had once 
entered with a powerful army. From Vermont he re- 
moved to Sparta, N. Y. where he received a pension 
from the U. S. for Revolutionary services. The appli- 
cation was made while Mr. Calhoun was in office, who 
wrote to the government of this State to know whether 
any legal objection existed to the grant of a pension. — 
Declarations filed by himself (Shays) in the war office, 
show that he and his aged wife were very poor. The 
schedule, filed in 1820, was as follows: — one Mare $25 
—one old Saddle $2,50— Bridle 50c— Old Cutter $5— 



90 HISTORY OP 

Old Axe 62 1 -2c— Hoe 62 1-2— Table $3—3 Chains 
$1,12 1-2— One old Scythe and Snathe, $1, 121-2— 
One old Pail 12 l-2c— One large Bible— $1,00. He 
died Sept. 1825, aged 78. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Annals of the town. — Great sickness of 1802. — Difficul- 
ties respecting the location of Meeting House, fyc. — 
Division of the town petitioned for. — Ministry. 

For a succession of years after the insurrection, we 
find little in the annals of the town requiring particular 
notice. The population increased gradually but slowly. 
After the year 17S0, and previous to 1790, several en- 
terprising individuals had established themselves in the 
south part of the town in trade and in various branches 
of mechanical business, and owing to the central situa- 
tion of that part of the town in relation to the surround- 
ing country, it began to flourish and considerable busi- 
ness to be done. These subjects will be noticed in an- 
other place. 

The laying out of the road called Federal Street, 
from Smead's inn, north, was an exciting subject in the 
year 17S8, and was very violently opposed by the town. 
The travel then went from the head of the village under 
rocky mountain. As late as 1790, petitions for a lotte- 
ry for building a bridge over Deerfield river, were made 
by this town and others, and an effort in '95 for a free 
bridge there, and remonstrances of the towns in this vi- 
cinity against the petition of John Williams for a toll 
bridge. 

The small pox prevailed in '92, and a vote is found 
allowing a hospital for inoculation, to be built, and in '96, 



GREENFIELD 91 

a house was licensed for the purpose. The house now 
occupied by Mr. David R. Wart, the Hoyt place, was, 
among others, improved for the purpose. In this year 
also a petition was forwarded to the General Court for 
an act to incorporate a company, Daniel Wells, Eliel 
Gilbert and Abner Smead for the purpose of bringing 
good and wholesome water into the •• town street" by 
pipes. 



1802. In the year Eighteen hundred and two, there 
occurred in the village, a most mortal and desolating 
sickness, carrying dismay and death in its progress, and 
terror to the hearts of all. 

" When I remember all 
The friends so link'd together, 
I've seen around me fall, 
Like leaves in wintry weather; 
I feel like one, who treads alone 

Some banquet hall deserted, 
Whose lights are fled, whose garland's dead, 
And all, but me, departed ! 

Thus in the stilly night, 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 

Sad mem'ry brings the light 

Of other days around me." 

Truly, then the hearts of men failed them for fear of 
that desolating judgment which seemed to threaten all, 
the old and the young and the middle aged. The strong 
man bowed before his sway ; his strength in which he 
confided, and of which, perhaps, he made his boast, be- 
came suddenly like that of a little child ; like the un- 
weaned infant ; it vanished before the mighty power cf 
that Sampson of diseases, the dysentery, which came 
down upon the peaceful village like a wolf on the fold. 

s j The Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast." 

Those who were attacked by the disease, which seem- 



92 HISTORY OF 

ed to mock at, to defy the power of medicine, soon 
became so weak and exhausted as to be careless of 
life, and almost reckless as to the issue of their sickness. 
In all who breathe the air, both man and brute, even 
down to the minutest insect that sports in the sunbeam, 
the love of life is strong and powerful, even to intensity. 
This love predominates over every other love. The fear 
of death is the greatest of all fears. Otherwise, the un- 
happy, the miserable, the oppressed, the persecuted, the 
victims of misrepresentation, of power and malice, who 
constitute a large portion of the human race, would be- 
come their own destroyers oftener than they now do, 
seeking a relief in death from their sorrows, and earth 
become one great charnel house of the dead. To the 
future must be deferred an understanding of this riddle of 
life, this constant warfare of existence. 

The stores and shops were mostly shut up, the streets 
were deserted, and an appalling solitude brooded over 
them ; none came to transact business unless in cases of 
necessity, for there were scarce enough well to take 
care of the sick, and other thoughts and cares than those 
of business occupied the minds of men. The traveller 
sought out other avenues or roads to pursue his journey, 
carefully avoiding to pass through the village, for alarm- 
ing reports spread far and wide, that a contageous dis- 
order, either the plague or the yellow fever, or something 
worse and more horrible, prevailed here, sweeping off the 
inhabitants with the besom of destruction. Many who 
did pass through the village, tied handkerchiefs over 
their faces and took other precautions to avoid the con- 
tagion. Many families removed from the village, and 
of those who remained, many sent away their chil- 
dren, as (he disorder was mortal among the young. — 
One hundred and one persons went away to other pla- 
ces in consequence of the sickness, and at one period 
there was not an inhabited house in the place where 
there was not one or more sick or dead. Five coffins 



GREENFIELD* 93 

were made on one Sabbath-day alone. The first death 
occurred July 18, and the sickness soon spread into oth- 
er parts of the town. Some families lost five, some 
three, and some lost all their children. — Then was there 
heard the voice of weeping and lamentation, Rachel 
mourning for her children, refusing to be comforted be- 
cause they were not. 

The whole number which had died, according to a 
record kept by the late Rev. Dr. Newton, from July 18 
to Sept. 20, was 47, — whole number in the year, of all 
disorders, 68, — 57 of whom were of the dysentery, and 
nearly all of them young persons. 

Eminent physicians did what they could to stay the 
plague. That excellent physician and estimable man, 
Dr. John Stone, the late Dr. Williams of Deerfield, and 
that nobleman of nature, the late Dr. Henry Wells of 
Montague, were employed ; the last and the first nam- 
ed, mostly. The sick seemed to have the impression 
generally, although they had great and well founded con- 
fidence in Dr. S., that they should certainly recover if 
Dr. Wells attended upon them, so great was their rever- 
ence for that philanthropist. The writer of this, then in 
his twelfth year, remembers, as though it were of yester- 
day, the gentle manners, the mild and benevolent coun- 
tenance of the good and venerable man, in his plain suit 
of brown, cut in the Quaker style. 

Aceording to a statement made by him and Dr. Stone, 
in the Gazette of August 16, upwards of ninety had 
been affected with the disorder up to the 14th, and there 
were then about 30 sick. Tney attributed the sick- 
ness to a scarcity of fruit, so necessary in hot weather 
to correct the bile, and to a putrid atmosphere occasion- 
ed by a great flood in June, which left stagnant water on 
the low lands, which by the intense heat of the weather 
became putrid, and being blown hither by the southerly 
winds affected the air so sensibly, as that its insalubrity 
might be plainly perceived by any one walking abroad 
9 



94 HISTORY OF 

in the evening. At this time — the 16th — the wind was 
blowing N. W. the heat was mitigated, considerable 
rain having fallen, most of the sick were convalescent. 
In 1777, a great sickness prevailed here as also in Shel- 
burne ; the population was much less in both than at 
present. Fifty died here and eighty in Shelburne. 

Stop, mortal, pause and consider ! what is human 
life ? What is thine own life? It is even as a vapor which 
appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. A 
bubble on the stream of time. That vapor, the sun, as 
soon as he shall have arisen, and before he has attained 
his meridian splendor, shall exhale ; that bubble shall 
soon burst and be lost in the waste of waters. The ea- 
ger pursuit of men after wealth, hurrying to and fro; 
their fraud, avarice, over-reaching and dishonesty, are 
matter of special wonder. Look at them, and — they are 
gone. The places that knew them, know them no more 
forever. The Ocean of Eternity is before you, inter- 
minable, vast, boundless, shoreless. Where is your 
chart, your compass, your helm, your anchor? 

" Soon time to thee shall be no more, 
No more the sun thy eye shall view, 
Earth o'er thy limbs her dust shall strew ; 
And life's fantastic dream be o'er. 53 

Fix your eyes upon the Eternal City, your heart on 
Him who is the head-stone of the corner, who is without 
shadow of change, and since 

" Jesus has lain there, dread not the tomb." 

Political Parties. — At this period, the excitement 
of feeling between the two great political parties into 
which the country was divided, was, perhaps, as great 
as at any other in its history. They were first called 
Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The division arose at 
first, from a difference of opinion in regard to the Con- 
stitution. The Federalists claim that they were in favor 
of it, as it is. The Federalists are understood to have 



GREENFIELD. 95 

favored the views of Alexander Hamilton, an eminent 
statesman, who was supposed to incline to a more con- 
solidated government, giving more power to the Execu- 
tive and to Congress, while the Democrats favored the 
more purely democratic views of Mr. Jefferson. The 
leading Federalists were also charged with favoring 
monarchy and the British Government. The unpopu- 
larity of some of the measures of Mr. Adams, tended to 
fill the democratic ranks. Some of the best and purest 
men in the country, of both parties, suffered abuse from 
the violence of party rancor. 

The party divisions of the present day, although pro- 
ducing licentious abuse in the press, do not so much as 
the former, encroach upon and interrupt the kindly inter- 
course of society and the relations of social life. 

The following brief table will show how the parties 
stood here during a portion of the times alluded to : — 

Years. Fed. Dem. Years. Fed. Dem. 
1801 115 5 1806 98 69 

1803 87 41 1809 128 76 

1804 87 56 

The votes continued nearly in the proportions of the 
latter year, until during the Presidency of Mr. Munroe, 
party spirit subsided. 

In 1808, a memorial of great length was forwarded to 
Congress asking a suspension or repeal of the Embar- 
go Law. It was in strong and glowing language, evi- 
dencing a high degree of excitement and alarm at the 
existing state of the country, as though every thing was 
tending to a state worse than the worst despotism ; the 
elements of society rushing to anarchy and chaos, and 
the bonds which had hitherto held the people together 
for mutual aid and protection, were about to be broken 
up and dissolved. This and others may be found on the 
Second Book of Records of the town. 

New County. — The County was divided in 1811, 



96 HISTORY OF 

and this town was finally fixed upon as the shire town, 
although a majority of the towns were in favor of Cheap- 
side. 

Ministerial. — In 1813, the town, by a unanimous 
vote, concurred with the church in inviting Rev. Gamal- 
iel S. Olds, to settle as colleague pastor with Mr. New- 
ton, with a salary of $700. Mr. N. relinquished $100 
of his salary. See under title Ecclesiastical. 

1816. Meeting House. — A committee which had 
been chosen the previous year, from the different school 
districts, to fix upon a place for building a new meeting 
house, reported in February, that they were unable to 
agree by a majority, upon any place. Upon a motion 
made to repair the old one, the town was equally divid- 
ed. A vote was then passed to choose a committee 
from without the County to fix upon a place. Ezra 
Starkweather, Ebenezer Mattoon, Samuel Porter, all of 
Hampshire County, were chosen. 

The committee met and having taken a view of the 
town, made a report dated in May, fixing upon " some 
part of one acre of ground" next north of the house of 
Elijah Alvord, Esq. as the place where the new meeting 
house ought to be erected. A subscription was made by 
several individuals, amounting to $3,150, whereby the 
subscribers thereto agreed that if the town will accept 
the report, to pay that sum for the support of the minis- 
try. 

At a meeting held June 12, a motion was made to 
accept the report on condition that the signers of the 
subscription shall secure the payment of the sum sub- 
scribed, which was negatived, 82 to 46. A motion to 
build a new meeting house was also negatived. 

At a meeting held in October, a vote was obtained de- 
claring the proper place on which to erect a new meet- 
ing house, to be between the house of Samuel Newton 
and Robert Nash, (now of D. Long, senior) in Silver 
street, a large minority dissenting. 



6HEENFIELD 97 

That part of the society residing in the village, com- 
menced forming a new society or Poll parish, and peti- 
tioned for an act of incorporation in June ; signed by 
Samuel Wells and 50 others, which was granted. 

Under these circumstances a meeting was held to see 
if the people would " concur with Mr. Olds, in submit- 
ting to a council, whether it is expedient, under all exist- 
ing circumstances to dissolve his pastoral relation to the 
church and people." They concurred in this and a 
council was called for the purpose, of this council, held 
Oct. 30, Rev. John Emerson of Conway, was the mod- 
erator, and Rev. J. W. Canning of Gill, Scribe. 

The council say : — " On inquiring it appears that this 
question of expediency arose from an appointment re- 
ceived by Mr. O. to an important professorship in Mid- 
dlebury College, Vt. on the one hand, and the peculiar 
state of the church and society in G. on the other, and 
that it appears from the records of the town book and 
other documents, that fruitless attempts have been made 
by the society* to unite either in repairing the present 
meeting house where it now stands, or in assigning some 
other place for erecting a new one ; that a portion of the 
society have already obtained an order of notice from the 
Legislature for erecting themselves into a poll parish and 
the remaining portion have in view to petition to be in- 
corporated into a separate town, and have actually ob- 
tained the consent of the town therefor," &c. &c. The 
result was a vote that the connection between the pastor 
and the society be dissolved. This took place accord- 
ingly. 

Division. — The same month in which the council 
was held, and a little previous, a town meeting was held 
to see if the town would consent to approbate the setting 

* The society comprehended the whole town, or nearly 
so, excepting the Episcopal Parish, then but recently 
formed. 

9* 



98 HISTORY OF 

off of all the north, and west, and east parts of the town, 
as far south as certain lands owned by people residing 
in the village and lying directly north of it, so that a line 
drawn from the south line of the town near Russell & 
Co's. cutlery works, by the road as it runs through the 
village to the south line of the new town, would, in pla- 
ces, not have been a mile long. The territory included 
every inhabitant in the town, not living in the village. — 
This would have been a real Gerrymander— a stately 
corporation — a smart little town. 

The town voted that they give their consent that the 
territory mentioned, together with its inhabitants, be set 
off and incorporated by the name of Green Meadow. 

A petition was sent to the Legislature signed by Mo- 
ses Arms and over one hundred others for an act of in- 
corporation, which failed of being granted. 

The summer of this year is distinguished in the an- 
nals of New England, as the cold summer. There 
was a frost every month ; — few fields of corn ripened ; 
— this was the golden age of small bills, shin plasters, 
so called, some of which were as small as one sixteenth 
of a dollar. All the small change had been picked up 
on a miserably small speculation, which an honorable 
man would despise. He would as soon be caught 
cheating at playing pin, as in this small trade. 

The winter of i81 9, was very remarkable. Lands 
were ploughed in January ; flies and grasshoppers were 
seen abroad ; and every thing had the appearance of 
spring. 

The summer of 1820, is memorable as being remark- 
ably dry. In May, from the 11th, it rained for twenty 
successive days, with scarce the intermission of a day. 
June, July and August were remarkably dry months, 
and a great drowth prevailed through the country. The 
grasshoppers became a burthen, devouring the fruits of 
the earth, eating even the standing corn. In several of 
the hill towns, it became necessary to feed cattle with 
hay to preserve them alive. 



GREENFIELD. 99 

CHAPTER VII. 

Ecclesiastical History. 

" In the first settlement of New England, when the 
people judged their number competent to maintain a 
minister, they then surely seated themselves, and not be- 
fore; it being as unnatural for aright New England man 
to live without an able ministry, as for a smith to work 
his iron without fire." — Johnson. 

For the little that is to be known of the early days of 
the church in this town, we are indebted to tradition and 
scanty gleanings from the town records. Previous to 
the incorporation of the town, in one instance, perhaps 
in more, a small sum had been voted by the parent town, 
to the Green river people, as they were called, which 
they had liberty to apply to the " support of preaching or 
for a school." What the number of inhabitants was, at 
the time of the passing this vote, we have no means of 
ascertaining, known to us, yet it must have been small, 
since, in 1763, ten years after incorporation, the town, 
including Gill, contained but three hundred and sixty- 
eight. But, as appears by the records, they immediate- 
ly set themselves in good earnest about the work of set- 
tling a minister. 

In two months after their incorporation, and at their 
second meeting, Aug. 7, 1753, the following vote was 
passed : — 

" Voted that the 16th day of this instant be set apart 
and kept by us as a day of prayer and fasting and yt the 
Rev. Jonathan Ashley of Deerfield, Joseph Ashley of 
Sunderland, Mr. Abercrombie of Pelham, be invited to 
assist us in the work of the day, and give their advice 
for some meet person to settle in the work of the minis- 
try among us." 



100 HISTORY OP 

Benjamin Hastings, Edward Allen, and Timothy 
Childs, " were chosen a committee to invite and desire 
the ministers to come and assist us." 

At another meeting, Aug. 20, a new committee was 
chosen to take the advice or approbation of the above 
mentioned clergymen, together with Mr. Jona Edwards 
of Stockbridge, Hopkins of Sheffield, Williams of Long 
Meadow, with respect to the Qualifications or Jitlness of 
Rev. Mr. Edward Billings, for the work of the ministry 
in Greenfield." 

Mr. B. had been previously settled in Belchertown. 
The cause of his dismissal is not now known. He is 
supposed to have been a native of Sunderland and a 
graduate of Harvard College. His settlement took 
place immediately after the last mentioned vote. The 
town voted him a settlement of £600, old tenor, with a 
salary of £300, for the first year, to increase £25 each 
year, until it should amount to £400, and also his fire 
wood. He resided at a place called Stocking fort, 
where Mr. Abner Wells now lives. This house was 
picketted for defence, and soldiers were stationed there 
in the time of the Indian wars. He died within a few 
years after his settlement. His brief answer to the call 
given him to settle here, follows : — 

" To the inhabitants of Greenfield : — I have taken 
into consideration your call of me to settle as minister of 
the Gospel among you, and thereupon determine to ac- 
cept of it, though there be some circumstances attend- 
ing my settlement among you that are far from being 
pleasing. I wish you may be directed by God in man- 
aging the important affair of settling the gospel ministry, 
and that I may be interested in your prayers, that when 
I come to you, I may come in the fulness of the bles- 
sing of the Gospel. Your friend and servant, 

Edward Billing. 

November 5th, 1753." 



GREENFIELD. 101 

Benjamin Hastings was the first, and for many years, 
the only deacon. * 

The settlement of Mr. Billings was attended with 
some difficulties. A difference of opinion existed among 
the clergy about terms of communion. There were two 
classes or schools in divinity, existing at that day, one of 
which was known as the Edwards school, to which Mr. 
B. belonged. Mr. Ashley of Deerfield, was of the op- 
posite school, consequently opposed to his ordination. — 
Mr. B. took care that clergymen of his own school, 
among whom was Mr. Hall of Sutton, were called to 
set in the council. Mr. Ashley was of the council and 
took with him half a dozen delegates, in order to out- 
vote the Edwards men. The council, however, insisted 
on voting by churches, and not per capita, (heads) 
and Mr. B. was ordained. 

Mr. B. was dismissed from his pastoral charge at 
Cold Spring, (Belchertown) in April, 1752. He after- 
wards preached for a time at a place called Nine 
Partners, in New York. He is said to have been 
a worthy man and of good talents. Nothing more ap- 
pears upon the records in relation to him, excepting in 
1759, the appointment of a committee to " look into ye 
affair of Mr. Billings' settlement." 

Note. — Old tenor has been mentioned. At a period 
near the year 1690, an emission of paper was made in 
this State to defray the expenses of the expedition against 
Quebec. As the bills were not redeemed except by new 
emissions, their value fell rapidly 'till the depreciation 
eventually was as 7 1-2 to 1, in specie. This is old ten- 
or. In 1750, the sum of £180,000 sterling paid to 
the colony to defray certain military expenses was de- 
voted to redeeming these bills. They had fallen so low 
at this time that the 180,000 redeemed 1,980,000— eleven 
for one. The same precious system of flooding the 
country with bills, is now in vogue. — Hist. Bernards- 
ton. 



102 HISTORY OF 

Mr. Billing was in adversity. Men of sordid and 
grovelling minds, infer from it a want of merit and of 
every virtue. Under such circumstances men essay to 
pluck us, even as a pigeon is plucked by a hungry hawk. 
Thankful may we all be, that we are not to be judged of 
man's judgment. The poor should remember, that al- 
though they suffer many privations, the rich have a coun- 
ter balancing weight of cares. 

Adversity, thy tooth is keen. Sunshine friends de- 
sert men » under ils influence; the frost nips them like 
butterfles, and they are worthless. " Disguise thyself 
as thou wilt, poverty, still thou art a bitter draught, and 
though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of 
thee, thou art none the less bitter on that account." Our 
happiness however is more in our own power than many 

The following bill will furnish an explanation of the 
subject : — 

Boston, July 28d, 1768. 
The Province of Massachusetts to Thomas Williston Dr. 
For sundries bought for use of the gentlemen Select- 
men , in going down to Rainsford Island. 

Rump of Beef and pieces to roast. 

Two Tongues, 

Cucumbers, Mustard, Salt and Meal, 

Bread and Biscuit, 

Lemons, hundred and a half, 

Two bottles of Claret and Cider, 

Pipes and Tobacco, 

Butter, Pork and Fat, 

Onions and Pepper, 

Sweet Marjoram and Twine, 

Cheese and Cayenne, 

Spirit, 

For Roasting the Beef, and Charcoal, 

Old Tenor, 

Lawful Money, J5 5 7 



I s 


d 


5 





1 10 





1 4 





2 15 





15 





4 15 





1 





2 10 





11 





4 





1 18 





3 





1 5 





739 12 






GREENFIELD. 103 

believe ; the state of the mind is the criterion of happi- 
ness or the reverse, and there is scarce any condition in 
life from which comfort and a degree of happiness may 
not be derived, if we exercise the reason which our Ma- 
ker has given us. 'Tis not to the possessor of millions that 
happiness is ensured — that depends upon the constitution 
of the mind. Reader, pause, ponder these things, and 
be not such a fool as to be miserable because others 
would have, or think you so — in short, let the trials and 
troubles of life make you a philosopher. Sufficient for 

Boston, February 1, 1769. We the subscribers here- 
by certify, that the above Account is right cast, and the 
charge according to agreement, the whole amounting to 
five pounds five shillings and seven pence. 

JOSHUA HENSHAW, 1 
JOSEPH JACKSON, I Selectmen 

JOHN RUDDOCK, V of 

JOHN HANCOCK, Boston. 

HENDERSON INCHES J 

The Hon. House of Representatives to 



To 111 Bottles Madeira Wine, 34s, 
To 18 Bottles Lisbon Wine, 22s 6d, 
To 70 Bowls Punch, 
To Bread, Cheese, 
To Breakage, 



Cordis 


Dr. 


I s 


d 


188 14 





20 5 





70 





20 





7 10 






Old Tenor, Z306 9 

Punch and Wine, 9 

J315 9 



Is Lawful Money, M2 1 2 

Boston, 5th June, 1769. Errors excepted. 

CORD CORDIS. 



104 HI8TORY OP 

the day is the evil, without your making it worse by re- 
pining and complaint. 

The greatest of poets has said— 

" Sweet are the uses of adversity. 
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous. 
Hath yet a precious jewel in its head." 

This jewel is the eye. He who will condescend to 
stoop and examine the eye of the toad, will find it of 
surpassing beauty, yet is the animal otherwise ugly and 
loathsome to the last degree. 

'•' Vain, very vain, our weary search to find, 
That bliss which only centers in the mind." 

Domestic afflictions assailed Mr. B. and shortened 
his pilgrimage. The rich in this world's goods do not 
escape from cares. If they come not early, they come 
late ; their visitations are as sure and certain as death, 
who, equo pede pulsaf, and with equal certainty knocks 
at the cottage of the peasant and the turrets of Kings. 

11 If misfortune comes to breakfast with you she gen- 
erally comes to dine and sup." 

Adversity has no charms to lure men to her embrace ; 
she is shunned as a destroying pestilence ; her breath 
parches and dries up the fountains of life like the Siroc- 
co of the desert ; her touch is withering and all around 
her abode is desolation and death ; none willingly come 
to the entering in of her doors, all shun her haunted, 
hated shades, as they would a gathering storm. 

But the breath of prosperity comes like the spicy gales 
of India or " Araby the blest ;" an endless summer 
smiles upon her coasts ; all men rise up and call her 
blessed ; her voice is like the voice of spring-— the voice 
of the charmer, haply it may not prove like the songs of 
the Syrens, to the followers of Ulysses. 

It is no great affair that a man should discharge his 
duties, and fulfil all his obligations, while the gale of 
prosperity fills his sails, and every gale wafts him steadi- 



GREENFIELD. 105 

\y and swiftly to the wished for haven of prosperity and 
ease. Touch him with the rod of adversity, (not that 
rod which converts every thing it touches into gold,) let 
the winds veer and shift, and blow a hurricane, 

" Amazement confronts him with images dire. 

Wild winds and mad waves drive his vessel a wreck;" 

and if his nerves are made of steel, and his heart of 
sheet iron, or as hard as the neither mill stone, he may 
feel and do as other men do. 

Perhaps, reader, you are one of those who congratu- 
late themselves upon their own superior good fortune, 
judgment and success in life, and look with contempt 
upon their less successful neighbors for their want of ca- 
pacity. Who maketh us to differ? Mayhap you are one 
of those who are hard, miserly and unconscionable in 
their dealings ; oppressive and grinding, taking every 
advantage of the simple and unwary ; disregarding the 
cry of the poor, the fatherless and the widow ; grap- 
pling estates by wrong, and exacting like the Jew, the 
pound of flesh, from the living and quivering limb. Be- 
gone to repentance and prayer ! for a day of retribution 
shall as surely come, as time shall be lost in eternity, 
and a just, but merciful Judge, rules over all, and be as- 
sured that neither an affected zeal for religion, nor the 
building of temples can shield from the keen tooth of 
remorse and the eye of the Eternal. 

The precise time of the death of Mr. Billing is not 
| known, but it occurred within a few years after his set- 
tlement. He was buried in the Old Burial Ground, 
but no stone marks the spot. 



" Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down, 

Where a green grassy turf is all I crave. 

With here and there a violet bestrown. 

And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave. -' 

From the brow of the hill at this burial ground, 
• 10 



106 HISTORY OF 

just in rear of Col. Root's, is to be found one of the 
most pleasant and picturesque prospects in this part of 
the country, and worthy the pencil of an artist. The 
eye here takes in a view of the sloping mountains of 
Shelburn, Deerfield and Sunderland, and the romantic 
rocky ridge bordering the village on the east ; the rich 
meadows below and on the river ; parts of those at 
Deerfield ; the scattered houses in the hamlet of 
Charleston, with its stone jail, princely jail house and 
neat grounds ; the old mill ; to the left the buildings of 
the High School, and the lofty spire of the house of 
prayer ; down the valley the cutlery works of Russell & 
Co. (success to their enterprise) ; the windings of Green 
river and the evergreen hill beyond, and minor objects. 

M And forest and meadow and slope of hill, 
Around thee are lonely and lovely and still. 
Oh loveliest there the spring days come. 
With blossoms and birds and wild bees hum, 
The flowers of summer are fairest there, 
And freshest the breath of summer air." 

Around in their chambers of decay, repose the re- 
mains of some of the first settlers, the bones of the fa- 
thers, those hardy and stern men, in their last, long 
sleep ; not to be raised till the last trump : 

" Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," 

and the infant, in the smiles of his innocent beauty, cut 
off. 

The ground has been inclosed but a few years, pre- 
viously lying in common with the lands around it. It 
contains, perhaps, one third of an acre, and compara- 
tively few monuments. Few or none are found of an 
earlier date than 1756. Some are of a dark red color ; 
others of a peculiar grey stone, slate, and a few marble. 
Few bodies have been deposited there since 1803, when, 
as I think, several were taken up to be placed in the 



GREENFIELD. 107 

new yard. Having a brother and sister removed at the 
time, I was present at the disinterment, and the coffins 
were opened, as a lesson for the living. Such it was ; 
and of those who witnessed it, probably not one has 
since desired to look upon its like, for the impression 
made by looking on these remnants of humanity, in their 
various stages of decay, will last during life, to One at 
least. But " to this complexion all must come at last." 
A few years since, a beautiful grove of stately oaks cov- 
ered the southern declivity of the hill adjoining this 
ground. Their appearance, to those coming from the 
south, was very beautiful, and their location very appro- 
priate. What more fitting place than this could have 
been chosen for the long repose and resting place of the 
dead, in that shady covert which once surrounded its 
hallowed ground. It is still a very beautiful spot, al- 
though much which rendered it peculiarly inviting, is 
lost by the removal of the old oaks. By frequent visits 
to these homes of the dead, the impression they are nat- 
urally calculated to make is in some degree lessened, yet 
the heart is made better, and the vanity of human hopes 
and human life is strikingly illustrated. Go, ye proud 
and supercilious and haughty sons of vanity and look 
upon your home. 

In imagination we are carried back to the times of 
these hardy pilgrims who settled around this spot, and 
realize their privations and toils, on a new and almost 
barren soil, and their continual exposure to the incur- 
sions of the natives. 

" Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe hath broke, 
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke." 

Reader, have you become weary of the toils, anxie- 
ties and disappointments of life ; of poverty, privation 
and dependence ; is life a burthen to your wearied spirit; 
are you a shipwrecked wanderer, misfortune's mark ; 



108 HISTORY OF 

are the corroding cares of life too much for your forti- 
tude, daily wasting the well spring of life and hope ; have 
you been " left to cold neglect and penury and scorn," 
to the oppression of enemies who have trodden you to 
the earth ; have you fallen a victim to appease the ill 
feelings of a few who sought to destroy an honest repu- 
tation ; be patient ; in a few days such clods as these 
shall cover you ; here is a quiet resting place. See to 
it that the miseries of the present, extend not to a future 
life ; there is enough here. 

" The dead reign here alone, all that breathe 

Will share thy destiny; The gay will laugh 

When thou art gone, the brood of care plod on, 

All shall leave their mirth, and their employments, 

And make their bed with thee. Thou shalt lie down 

With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings. 

Earth that nourished thee shall claim thy growth, 

To be resolved to earth, to mix forever with the elements. 

As the long train of ages glide away, the sons of men, 

Shall one by one be gathered to thy side, 

By those who in their turn shall follow them." 

A call to settle was given to Mr. Bulkley Olcott in 
Dec. 1760, with a salary of <£66. 13. 4. for the first 
year, to rise £ 1. 6. 8. a year till it amounted to £80, 
and a committee appointed to get subscriptions for a set- 
tlement. Nothing further appears upon the records 
concerning him, and as he was not settled here, the in- 
ference is that the call was not accepted. 

In August, 1761, the town voted unanimously to give 
" Mr. Roger Newton a call to settle in the work of the 
ministry, and to give him as an encouragement to settle 
among us, £133. 6. 8. as settlement, and £66. 3. 4. as 
sallary, and to rise £1. 6. 8. a year till it amounts to 
£80." At a subsequent meeting in Sept. it was voted 
to give him sixty cords of wood yearly, in addition to his 
salary. Compared to the amount paid at this day, the 
talary appears very small, and for an individual, the 



GREENFIELD. 109 

quantity of wood very large. The wants of life, in the 
then plain style of living were small, as the real wants 
now are. Houses were not so carefully sealed up and 
guarded against cold as now, and stoves were not in 
use. Frugal habits distinguished the people of the olden 
times. 

There were differences of opinion existing in the 
church respecting terms of communion, of the precise 
nature and extent of which we are not informed. Some- 
thing may be inferred respecting them from the follow- 
ing, which is his answer to the call : — 

"Gentlemen — I take this opportunity to acknowl- 
edge your favors in manifesting such an esteem of my 
labors among you that you have so unanimously invited 
me to settle with you in the work of the ministry and 
have according to your ability been liberal in your offers 
to me. Your affections manifested to me from time to 
time, inclines me to settle amongst you, hoping I may be 
serviceable to your spiritual welfare, relying on your 
abiding in your good opinion of me, and esteem of my 
labors so long as I am faithful in the work of the minis- 
try, and depending upon your catholic sentiments with 
regard to them who differ from you about terms of com- 
munion — that there be no contention, provided no 
scandalously ignorant or immoral persons are admitted 
to your communion, that all persons of competent knowl- 
edge and sober lives be allowed to come to ye commun- 
ion who think it their duty to come to the ordinances of 
the Lord's table, and it is upon this proposal I accept 
your invitation and desire to give myself to the service of 
your souls in the work of the ministry, humbly depend- 
ing upon the grace and strength of Christ, that I may be 
faithful, requesting an interest in your prayers that I may 
save myself and them that hear me." 

He was settled Nov. 18, 1761. He was a native of 
Durham, Conn. His religious character was far from 
that of the bigot, partizan or zealot. He possessed 
10* 



110 HISTORY OP 

great mildness and equanimity of temper and manners ; 
always dignified, and appeared among his people like a 
kind father among his children. The single circumstance 
that the town enjoyed peace and union for nearly the 
whole period of his ministry, fifty-six years, is of itself, 
strong evidence of his virtue and prudence. Fifty-six 
years ! Start not reader, at the almost incredible differ- 
ence between that day and ours. What a text for com- 
mentary ! Since he fell asleep, things have not remain- 
ed the same, inasmuch as there is a wide difference be- 
tween a town, itself forming one parish only, and the 
same town cut up into five. It has been suggested by 
some, that if he had preached the distinguishing doc- 
trines of either of the opposite sects to the extent which 
either might claim that he ought to do, the people would 
Dot have been so long united ; that what was gained for 
peace was lost to doctrine and to duty. It is not the 
province of the writer to say what he should have done, 
or to speculate upon what might have been the results 
of any particular course, but simply to narrate facts so 
far as " they come to his knowledge." His sermons 
were chiefly practical. 

He was visited with severe domestic affliction in the 
loss of a son of great promise, who died in 1789, at the 
age of 27. He was then a Tutor in Yale College. — 
The following is a part of the inscription upon his grave 
stone : — 

11 Having eminently distinguished himself in the course 
of a short life, for his filial obedience, love of science, 
virtue and mankind." Another son followed many 
years after in 1815, who was a man of talents and orig- 
inal mind. Madame Newton was removed from the 
cares of earth in 1805, and was what a clergyman's 
wife, and what every other woman should be, a good 
woman, dignified and benevolent. 

He died Dec. 1816, aged 80. A sermon was 
preached at his funeral by his friend Dr. Lyman of Hat- 



GREENFIELD. Ill 

field, from Heb. vii. 23. He was gathered lo the grave, 
to use the beautiful passage of scripture so often used 
by him in his prayers, " like a shock of corn fully ripe." 
His moderation of manner, conciseness and perspicuity 
of style; the sound sense of his sermons and their par- 
ticular brevity in cold weather, (meeting houses had no 
stoves in those days) as well as the dignified and vener- 
able form of the good man are still fresh in the memory 
of many. Consummate prudence, caution and shrewd- 
ness, were distinguishing traits in his character. His 
prayers in public worship had much of sameness and 
formality, yet no one found fault therewith ; they wero 
seldom varied except on particular occasions, yet was he 
always pertinent, and on many occasions remarkably so. 
In his latter days he very frequently read, for the choir 
to sing, the Pslam of Watts, commencing, 

" Now to the Lord, a noble song," 

the reading of which always affected him to tears. 
Doubtless he had his failings ; whatever they might 
have been, and reader, whatever may be our wanderings, 
may we hope that the " Recording Angel may drop a 
tear upon them and blot them out forever." In order 
for this, we must do better than we have done ; rely as 
he did upon that volume which contains the high and 
holy hopes of the Christian, which despite the scoffs and 
sneers of infidels and fools, must stand acknowledged 
while the world shall stand, the chart and compass of 
man's salvation. 

The clergy as a body were more reverenced and re- 
spected in those times than at present, nor is this de- 
cline in public sentiment by any means favorable to pub- 
lic and private order and virtue, to morality or religion. 
How sweet, how purifying and healthful to society is the 
example and influence of a good and pious, discreet, 
peace-making clergyman, who loves his people and is 
beloved by them ; how interesting the tie ; " like the 



112 HISTORY OF 

shadow of a great rock in a weary land, like a beam of 
the East arising in a land unknown." 

He was married in August 1762, to Abigail Hall, (sis- 
ter of late Timothy Hall,) of Middletown, Conn. He 
was then 25 — she 23. Their children were — 
Roger, born July 2, 1763, died April 10, 1789. 
Isaac, »■ March 16, 1765, " May 4, 1765. 
Isaac, " Sept. 16, 1767, " Dec. 2, 1768. 
Abigail, *' June 9, 1771, married Rev. Lam- 
bert, now of Lyme, N. H. 
Susanna, born Oct. 6, 1773, died Sept. 12, 1777. 
Ozias Hall, M April 1, 1775, married Hannah Smead, 

he died April 8, 1S15. 
Isaac, born July 12, 1777. 

Susanna, born April, 15, 1779, married Proctor Pierce, 
late of Boston. 

Oct. 3, 1S02 Pofession of Faith. Lord's Day. 
— " The following profession of faith was voted by the 
church to be in use for the future in lieu of the one for- 
merly used and that those who publicly make this pro- 
fession shall be received into Christian communion with- 
out making any other confession for past sins than what 
is implied herein." (what the former was I have not 
been able to ascertain.) 

M Professing a firm belief in revealed religion, and 
that the Holy Scriptures which contain it were given by 
inspiration of God and resolving to take them for your 
rule of faith and practice, you do now say, or as you 
know your own heart, solemnly avouch and choose the 
Lord Jehovah, the only living and true God, to be your 
God and portion. In particular, you do take God the 
Father to be your Father in Heaven ; the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, to be your Mediator and Savior; 
the Holy Ghost to be your scanclifier and guide. 

" Being sensible that in many things you have offended 
by transgressing the law of God, you do now with peni- 



GREENFIELD 113 

tence for your sins humbly implore his forgiving mercy, 
and the aid of his grace to enable you henceforth to walk 
before God in love and in all holy conversation and 
godliness. 

" Convinced of the importance of early instruction in 
virtue and piety, you now promise that you will consci- 
entiously endeavor to train all such as are or may be 
committed to your care, agreeably to the prescriptions 
of God's Holy Word. You do also covenant with this 
Church of Christ, and promise that you will attend on 
the ministration of the word and ordinances and submit 
to the Christian watch, discipline and regulations of this 
Church, so long as God shall continue your life and 
abode with us. All this you profess and promise in the 
presence of the all seeing God, and engage by the help 
of his spirit and Grace to live agreeably to the same." 

The settlement of Mr. Olds, in 1813, as colleague 
with Dr. Newton, has been mentioned in the last chap-, 
ter among the doings of the town. It might, perhaps, 
more properly have been placed under this head. Mr. 
Olds was a native of Marlboro', Vt., a graduate of 
Williams College, and had been a Professor there. At 
the first attempt to settle him here, a difficulty occurred 
among the clergy composing the council. Rev. Samu- 
el Willard of Deerfield, a Unitarian, was among the 
members, some of whom objected to proceeding, consid- 
ering that it would constitute an act of fellowship with 
him. The council ultimately dissolved without doing 
the business for which they came together. Another 
council, called soon after, proceeded to ordain Mr. O. 
The occasion of his dismission has been already men- 
tioned. 

Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge of Southampton, a grad- 
uate of Williams college, was ordained over the society 
in April, 1817. Ordaining clergy, Revs. Theophilus 
Packard, J. W. Canning, Samuel Taggart, Vinson 



114 HISTORY OF 

Gould. Sermon by Rev. John Woodbridge. He was 
dismissed in 1823, at his own request. 

After his dismissal, the society had for some time the 
services of Rev. Lincoln Ripley from the State of Maine, 
and of Rev. Eben Halping of Vermont. 

Rev. Amariah Chandler, the present minister, for- 
merly minister of Waitsfield, Yt. was ordained their pas- 
tor in 1832. Mr. C. is a native of Deerfield, and a 
graduate of Burlington college, Yt. 

The ancient edifice, (the old meeting house) where 
the fathers had so long convened, was unceremoniously 
taken down in 1831 — not to give place to another on 
that bleak and barren old common, Trap Plain, where it 
had resisted the winds and storms of three fourths of a 
century, but to a handsome brick edifice on a kindlier 
spot, near Nash's mills, on the banks of Green river, 
(Picomegan) end on the borders of fine meadows, and a 
settlement of as intelligent lords of the soil as are to be 
found any where, or " as the sun in his circuit shall see." 

Second Congregational Society. — This society 
was formed in 1816, and met for a time at the court 
house. Their meeting house was erected in 1818-19. 
They had, for a considerable time, the services of Rev. 
Dan Huntington of Hadley. Rev. Charles Jenkins 
of Barre, a graduate of Williams college, was ordained 
their minister May 9, 1S20. Ordaining clergy — Revs. 
Nathan Perkins, T. Packard, J. Knapp, T. F. Rogers, 
J. W. Canning, A. Gates, S. Woodbridge. Charges 
were preferred against him, (not however affecting his 
moral or religious character) by a part of the parish, in 
1824. The council was composed of Rev. Messrs. 
Chickering of Phillipston, Sprague of West Springfield, 
Bucklin of Marlboro', Hitchcock of Conway, Hallock of 
Plainfield, Miller of Heath. The council reported that 
they did not deem it proper to advise him to ask a dis- 
mission. 



GREENFIELD. 115 

He was dismissed in July 1824, by an agreement be- 
tween himself and the parish, and afterwards settled at 
Portland, Me. where he continued till his death, in 1831. 
He fixed the attention of his audience by a polished 
style of writing, solemnity of manner, and evidently deep 
conviction of the truth of the religion he taught. A vol- 
ume of his sermons has been published since his death. 
Rev. Wm. C. Fowler, a native of Connecticut, a 
graduate and Tutor of Yale college, was settled in Aug. 
1825. Ordaining clergy — Revs. Dr. Packard, J. W. 
Canning, W. B. Sprague, E. Hitchcock. Sermon by 
Rev. Prof. Fitch of New Haven. He was dismissed in 
October, 1827, on account of ill health. He has since 
been a Professor in the college at Middlebury, Yt. and 
recently been appointed a Professor at Amherst college. 
Rev. Caleb Sprague Henry, of Brookfield, and a 
graduate of Dart, college, was ordained in January, 1829. 
Ordaining clergy — Rev. Messrs. Packard, Shepard, 
TilestonrT. S. Clark, B. F. Clark, M. B. Bradford, 
Crosby, Sprague, Foote, T. Packard, Jr. He was dis- 
missed Dec. 1831, at his own request. 

Rev. Thomas Bellows, of Walpole, N. H. was or- 
dained in March, 1833. Ordaining clergy^-Rev. T. 
Packard, T. Packard, Jr., N. Porter, A. Chandler, T. 
F. Clark, S. Pratt. He was dismissed in Sept. 1834, 
at his own request on account of ill health. 

Rev. Samuel Washburn, the present minister of the 
parish, from the State of Maine, was settled in Aug. 
1837. Ordaining clergy — Revs. Messrs. Todd of Phil- 
adelphia, Aikin of Boston, Packard, Canning, B. Fow- 
ler. Their having been for sometime destitute of the 
stated services of a settled minister, and their unanimity 
in the call of this gentleman, served to render the occa- 
sion of his ordination, one of great interest to them, and 
of gratification to the Christian community generally. 

He established the 1st Congregational Church and 
Society in Philadelphia, where he preached about two 



116 HISTORY OF 

years, and relinquished the situation on account of ill 
health. 

Third Congregational or Unitarian Society. — 
A part of the 2d Cong. Soc. separated from them and 
formed themselves into a new society in May, 1825. — 
Rev. Winthrop Bailey, a native of Berlin, and graduate 
of Harvard college, in 1807, was their first minister. He 
was for a time a Tutor of Bowdoin college, Brunswick, 
and settled as a minister in that town for a few years. — 
Having, while there, changed his views in some respects, 
he resigned his charge ; removed to, and was settled at 
Pelham in 1S15. He was installed over this parish in 
Oct. 1825. Clergy assisting— Dr. Thayer, Dr. Park- 
man, Dr. Willard, Rev. T. F. Rogers. He continued 
their minister until his decease, in March, 1835, in his 
51st year. Mr. B. was universally respected as a man, 
highly estimable in all the relations of life, who with sin- 
gleness and sincerity of mind and purpose, punctiliously 
discharged its duties. Modest, humble, mild and unas- 
suming, whatever you and I may think of his specula- 
tive opinions, the Christian character shone beautifully 
out in his blameless life. " As a preacher, though he 
was not of them who by their eloquence delight, he nev- 
er failed to instruct his hearers. In the pulpit he com- 
mended himself to their judgment, and he was daily 
preaching to them by the silent eloquence of his example. 
He was among the pure in heart, who see God in every 
thing, walking in the light of his countenance, and in all 
good conscience before men." 

Rev. John Parkman, of Boston, a native of Brigh- 
ton, and a graduate of Harvard college, was ordained 
Oct. 11, 1S37. Clergy assisting — Revs. George Rip- 
ley of Boston, Austin of Brighton, Everett of Northfield, 
Hall of Dorchester, May of Leicester. Sermon by Dr. 
F. Parkman of Boston. Their meeting house, which is 
a neat and beautiful building, was finished in 1837. 



GREENFIELD. 117 

Protestant Episcopal Parish of St. James' 
Church. — This parish was formed in 1812. Rev. Ti- 
tus Strong, of Dedham, was ordained as Priest and 
instituted Rector of the parish, May 26, 1815, by the 
Rev. A. V. Griswold, Bishop of the Diocese. Their 
church was finished and consecrated in 1814. 

Mr. Strong was a descendant of John Strong, (first 
ruling elder in the church at Northampton. He was a 
native of Somersetshire, England, and came to this 
country with the Puritans, and was the father of sixteen 
children) and born at Brighton in this State, Jan. 1787, 
and ordained Deacon in the Episcopal church in 1814. 
He received the honorary degree of A. M. from Dart- 
mouth University and Williams College. 

Methodist Society. — This society was formed in 
L834, and a house of worship erected in 1835. Since 
the organization of the society, their clergymen have 
been, Rev. Paul Townsend, Rev. Reuben Ransom, 
and Rev. Mr. Collins, their present minister. 

This denomination of Christians has much increased 
in the United States within the last few years. The 
gift or talent of speaking fluently and forcibly, some- 
times powerfully, in many comparatively unlettered 
men, combined with ardent zeal, is noticeable in this 
denomination. If there is anything worthy attention in 
religion ; if there is any truth in the idea of a future ret- 
ribution, and that there is, to our apprehension, the voice 
of nature, reason and Revelation bear conclusive testi- 
mony, then is their zeal not unworthy of imitation, at 

Note. — Of the published works of Mr. S. are — Candid 
Examination of Episcopacy; Sermon on the death of J. 
Barnard, 1815; Sermon at institution of Rev. Mr. Howe, 
Claremont, N. H. 1819; Sermon at Missionary meeting 
in St. Pauls' church, Boston; Scholar's Guide to the 
History of the Bible; Young Scholar's Manual; Com- 
mon Reader, &c. 

11 



118 HISTORY OP 

least measurable. The simplicity and plainness of dress 
which their rules recommend, is worthy of the attention 
and practical application of all, and entitled to more ob- 
servance than they receive. The temptations to dress 
are strong, particularly to the young, and indeed to others, 
inasmuch as the opinion of the world, and the attention 
men receive, especially strangers, is graduated by their 
outward appearance, and by these men are judged of. If 
you wear a shabby coat, you will be called a shabby fel- 
low. 

Their societies are, so far as observed, generally made 
up from the unpretending and those in the more humble 
walks of life. To the poor the gospel is preached. — 
Such were once chosen as the followers of the blessed 
Founder of the Christian's hope, and they too were every 
where spoken against. Not many wise, not many 
mighty were called. But that there are in an equal 
number of individuals in any denomination, more good 
and sincere men, than in another, is not pretended. Suf- 
ficient is it for us that we can worship after the manner 
we choose. 

It is manifest that zeal is easily assumed, and unac- 
companied by knowledge and practical goodness, is 
worthless. The world soon sees, and marks with con- 
tempt, those who have nothing to show but affected faith 
and inordinate selfishness and worldljness, for its eye is 
even upon them and the hollow professor cannot long hide 
himself from its fixed and steady gaze. When religion 
produces the peaceable fruits of righteousness, that also, 
is soon seen, and it is pertinent to remark, that it suffers 
more from false friends than open enemies. 

Good men of all denominations, should act together, 
and it is to be lamented that the zeal which should be 
exerted in extending the blessed influences of religion, 
and endeavors to ameliorate the condition of the human 
race, should so much of it be bestowed only in exalting 
particular sects, and consumed in party feeling, and that 



GREENFIELD. 119 

fire which should enlighten and purify, should be suffer- 
ed to destroy. Thanks to that beneficient Power, who 
tules overall, and before whom the nations of men are 
but as grashoppers, we are not to be finally judged of 
man's judgment, or by the denominations to which we 
belong ; the narrow and bigoted views and rules of 
men form no part of His counsels. 

Episcopalians are condemned, Unitarians are con- 
demned, Universalists are condemned, and all sects agree 
in. finding fault with each other. Who shall judge these 
people ? Not fallible man — exercising a power belong- 
ing only to the Supreme. The Eternal, whose thoughts 
are not as our thoughts, who knoweth our frame and re- 
membereth that we are but dust ; before whom those 
who " in every nation fear God and work righteousness, 
are accepted ;" He is our judge. 

Memoranda of Rev. Mr. Billing, between Oct. 
1752, and April 1756 — Ye R mr Pars says they told 
Him they could not have advised us to walk together in 
peace and love, as in ye close of the Letter to ye chh. un- 
less I had said yt I would admit in ye old way, and some 
times they say they were not willing to tell ye chh I 
would admit sieuch unte least it should grieve or dis- 
please me. this is as much as to say they wrote some- 
thing in ye Letter wh they could not have wrote truly 
unless I had said I would etc. I would query wherein 
they could propound in writing such advice without rea- 
sons to support— could they think yt their ipse dixit yt 
we might walk together etc. was enough to convince ye 
chh yt they might when they themselves allow yt we 
might not unless etc. But they remember there was 
enough said to found such an assertion upon, for I told 
them none stood candidates for admission at present in 
ye old way and if any I should in future I knew not but I 
might join in admitting them, tho I did not seeyt I could 
safely at present. Moreover I told them I knew not if 



120 HISTORY OF 

any would desire admission in ye old way and there wa3 
do occasion to quarrell for I refused not communion 
with those in ye chh. 

1753. Came from Fort Dummer 8th day Jan.— 
next Sabb at Green River. 

19 August keept Sabb at home preached at my house 
and one Sabb in July preceding at home — before ye 
last Sabb at home preacht 5 Sabb at Greenfield before it 
was Greenfield preached 18 Sabb 6 of which to be paid 
by Deerfield and 12 to be paid by Edw Allen and Dan- 
iel Graves 8 pound per Sabb. preacht five Sabb after- 
wards before it was made a district which were before 
ye 19 Aug which day I preacht at my own house. 

Preached at Greenfield 2d Sabb. in July, kept Sabb 
at Home once in July. 

18 Sabb in ye winter and spring 1753, since which 
preached 5 Sabb before it was made a District or till ye 
19 Aug. (and afterwards in Oct. JNov. Dec. part time. 

1754. Dec ye 12, ye soldiers went from Greenfield to 
Ens Barruck at fall town This a grand scheem indeed of 
great importance to ye defence of our frontiers, for 
doubtless ye Barruk and soldiers will become an easy 
prey to ye Indians. If they invade them they having 
neither a fort nor a picquet and ye more men they shall 
take at fall town, the less they will take in other place. 



for Thanksgiving 1756, 

1 piece Beef Samu Mun 

Ditto Ens Childs 

1-4 mutton mr D. Wells 

1 spare rib and 2 chickens of Mr Nash 

1 Shoulder veal and 2 fowls of sergt Smead 

2 Large Fowls of Jos. Wells. 
1 Fowl mrs nims 

1 of mrs alien 

1 Shoulder of pork Mrs Denio 

2 Fowls of Mrs Graves 
2 mrs Severance 



GREENFIELD. 121 

About a 100 Women went in ye Governours Army ; 
And it is said 50 women were killed at ye Engagement 
at ye or near ye Ohio under Genl Bradduck in 1755 

perhaps swearing drinking and with some other 

sins rendered our Arms so successless in ye yeer 1755. 

An infallible specific for all (hose distempers which 
arise from a plethoric Loquacity and Indolence (vhs) 
clearing Land one whole day in ye weak with fasting, a 
Gentleman who was reduced to such a low state he yt 
could not ride a space of four miles without throwing an- 
imal nature into a very painful state has found ye return 
of his health by ye above specific. 

Apl 1756 plague among ye Dogs at Boston and 
Hartford, ghos said a Council of Doctors sat at Hart- 
ford to consult ye specific for ye jutting sickness which 
a Hermit in ye woods supposed to be 2000, advised a 
certain Dreamer to use. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Extracts from the Diary of Rev. Dr. Newton. 

1790. Daily and Domes. Occurr. Missellane- 
ous Tho'ts, &c— July 21st. went with Mrs. Newton 
to Deerfield chiefly in company with Mr. Lyman and 
Lady, at Mr. Taylors. The company and entertainment 
agreeable, but something wanting to make me happy as 
there always has been and I fear always will be in this 
world. Does this arise from some evils attending my 
present situation or fears of those to come, or from a de- 
sire in my nature of something greater and better than 
10* 



122 history or 

what is in this world, implanted there by my Creator, to 
excite me in a way of well doing to seek for glory, honor 
and immortality. When I returned at evening, the sat- 
isfaction I felt led me to remark the wisdom and good- 
ness of Providence in attaching us to our several homes, 
whereby much interruption is prevented and our con- 
tentment greatly increased, and miserable are they that 
have no home, or a home that is disagreeable and which 
they wish to avoid. My two sons informed me they had 
done as I directed them, and their industry and obedi- 
ence as usual were pleasing, but it is a continual burden 
upon my spirits that Roger is gone, and that I have no 
prospect of such improvement in literary accomplish- 
ments by any other child. May this huriible me and be 
better to me than a son shining in Courts. 

July 31. A pleasant day, but made unpleasant to me 
by an appearance of a voluntary absence among the 
young people especially from public worship and more 
so still, by the want of a proper spirit and frame in my- 
self—others don't do right, but I am constrained to 
think I do worse than they, considering my profession 
and situation. My feelings are not at my own com- 
mand, yet it is my fault that they are no better, and is 
doubtless owing in great part to my neglect. 

Lord's Day, Aug 8. Preached from Gal vi. 10. — 
The subject was easy, copious and important, but in 
the afternoon especially, spoke without feeling and with 
dissatisfaction on account of my own imperfections in 
the duty I was recommending, and being conceived as I 
supposed by others to be inculcating that which I did 
not practice myself. Experience teaches me that in- 
structors of religion and morality in order to be happy in 
their employ, must really love and practice those duties 
which they enjoin upon others. 

This day received an anonymous letter wrote with a 
good legible hand and in better language than common 
men generally use, expressing a desire that I would 



GREENFIELD. 123 

shew in some public discourse whether it is right and 
consistent with the word of God that men should consult 
conjurers, and from information received from them pre- 
sume to accuse particular persons of theft or any other 
crime, who cannot be found guilty in an ordinary way. 
This motion I conclude was made because heretofore 
Mr. Cooke consulted a conjurer, and of late, Mr. L. H. 
both members of Church, and the author of the letter 
says it is a growing practice, and represents a number of 
the Brethren as feeling concerned to have this matter 
discussed in a serious scriptural manner. Accordingly 
it appeared to be my duty to preach a sermon relative to 
it so soon as Providence may give a proper opportunity. 

Aug. 22. Preached both parts of the day concern- 
ing Conjurors and the propriety of consulting them, from 
1 Sam'l. xxviii. 8. The subject being new appeared to 
gain a little more attention than common. 

Monday, Aug. 23. Read the Monthly Magazine 
for June, and several Papers from the Printer at New 
York. I found little in them either profitable or entertain- 
ing ; this however may be owing to my restless age 
rather than to any defect in them, but I think there might 
be a great saving to the people without any injury, by di- 
minishing the number of Printers. Upon a review of 
this day and my life back, I feel the pertinency of Bish- 
op Burnett's expressions : " for what is this life but a 
circulation of little mean actions. We lie down and rise 
again," &c. <S>-c. &c. 

Aug 27, 1790. This day is 28 years since my nup- 
tials were celebrated ; since then I have met with many 
unexpected events both pleasing and displeasing, which 
teaches me that I know not what is to come, but this I 
know, that my time is short. 

Nov. 25, 1790. Thanksgiving Day, Text, Zech. vii. 
6. Nov. 26. The day spent among us as usual in visit- 
ing and recreations. In afternoon visited by Mrs. 

and her sister R. a young lady of a serious turn of mind, 



124 HISTORY OF 

who refused going to a dance, seemingly upon principle* 
but in my own mind I conceive of dancing being an in- 
nocent diversion in itself, though usually carried to ex- 
cess and attended with unbecoming behavior. 

Jan. 1, 1791. The weather cold and stormy like the 
world in which we dwell, and 'tis melancholy to think 
what little occasion I have to expect happiness as is wish- 
ed from the New Year. 

Sunday, 15. Mr. — • came to see me, under 
great impressions from a dream, and with a seeming en- 
gaged purpose of reforming his life. 

Lord's Day, May 1. Preached from Rom. xiv. 17. 
But not much to my own, nor as I trust, to any others 
satisfaction. 

May 4, 1791. This day my second son Isaac has 
been dead 26 years. His life might have given wholly 
a new turn to my outward and temporal affairs, for great 
and numerous events are sometimes connected with one 
in itself small. If he had lived, the children that suc- 
ceeded might have had no existence or be of a different 
sex, and otherwise in their genius, disposition and edu- 
cation than they are now. He might have been publicly 
educated, and Roger a farmer, and from their settlement 
in the world I might have members of the second gener- 
ation from me rising in the world ; or it might have been 
something different from all this, no body knows what ; 
it is ordered as it now is by an infinite unerring mind 
whose course stands to all generations and whose origin- 
al plan amidst the seeming confusion that is in the world 
and casual events, is continually accomplishing and will 
be through the endless ages of Eternity. I, therefore 
ought to be contented, though many events take place 
that are disagreeable to me, and submissive to the pur- 
poses and designs which I have eagerly formed. There 
is no prospect that I shall see in this world, as many 
more years as have revolved since the death of my sec- 
ond son, and as these have been filled up with various 



GREENFIELD 125 

unexpected events, so it is probable that share of time 
will be, that remains for me. But to sickness and mor- 
tality and trouble in my family I ought to consider my- 
self exposed, and to have my passions so subdued, my 
affections moderated in such a manner towards each of 
my household and all earthly things, as that I may have 
them separated from me by Providence, or I from them, 
without any murmuring or overbearing distress. May 
the great Ruler and searcher of hearts give me such a 
frame ! and may I endeavor after the same, by contem- 
plating upon such truths and attending upon such means 
as lead to it. 

July 20, 1791. This day completed a year since this 
Journal begun — which has rolled round insensibly with 
a sameness daily in respect to its events. There is no 
new thing under the sun. What is and shall be, has 
been — human life is filled up with a repetition of the 
same duties, the same labors, engagements and suffer- 
ings — upon the whole this has been a very prosperous 
year, tho' no great events have taken place in it — espe- 
cially on account of the health thnt has been enjoyed in 
my family. According to the ordinary course of things 
there can be no change in my outward circumstances 
materially for the better. The probability is, from my 
period of life and other things, they will soon alter much 
for the worse. Prepare my soul to meet thy God ! 

Aug. 10, 1791. This day reminds us of one of the 
most sorrowful events ever sustained by man ; the death 
of Roger, my oldest and dearly beloved son, who died 
Aug. 10, 1789. Being accustomed to this bereavement, 
it is less severely felt, in a general way, than at the be- 
ginning, though it still lies at heart and always will as 
one of the heaviest burthens upon my mind. No father 
ever, seemingly stood in greater need of such a son, and 
it is I conceive a sore thing amongst parents to have 
such a son, but this opinion perhaps is owing to the par- 
tiality of a father. I desire to remember that the same 



126 HISTORY OF 

all -perfect God who gave this son hath taken him away, 
and that infinite wisdom as well as righteousness always 
attends his Providence. 

May 11, 1792. Began to write upon Rev. xvii. 22. 
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, &c. 

May 12. This being my birth day on which I am 55 
years old, reminds me that my life must be drawing to a 
close. 

Dec. 19, 1792. About 5 o'clock this morning, Eliel 
Gilbert's house was consumed by fire, supposed to catch 
the preceding evening in manteltree of the west lower 
room. A subscription in his behalf was set forward 
which in a iew hours appeared to amount nearly to ,£100. 

Aug. 10, 1793. It being this day four years since 
my son Roger died, the sorrows of that event are sensi- 
bly revived. 

May 12, 1794. This day adds another year to my 
number being now 57 years of age. My days are spent 
as a tale that is told ; what remains of time for me will 
soon be closed. 

June 4, 1794. Heard Reuel Willard affirm in con- 
versation with Daniel Forbes that the north line of the 
street as run by Mr. Root of Montague strikes the north 
side of the chimney of Mr. Jerom Ripley's store about 
four feet from the front of his dwelling house north. 

1794. Drew in from the street in making my fence 
west from the store three or four feet in order to have it 
range with Mr. Pierce's fence which stands still farther 
west. 

May 22, 1796. Voted, members of this church re- 
siding in Gill, might with others, form themselves into a 
church by themselves in that place. 

July 27, 1797. The bend in the street against Je- 
rom Ripley, Esq. and which by the running of the fence 
has been straitening from time to time for several years 
past, is now made still straiter by the building of his door- 
yard and consequently the street is made narrow and 



GREENFIELD. 127 

deviates from its lines as they were originally laid — my 
fence against said Ripley's is drawn in several feet from 
where my old stone wall stood as may now be made 
manifest by the remainder in the ground of some of the 
foundation. 

May 2, 1799. At a regular church meeting warned 
for the purpose of choosing a Deacon and attending to 
the situation and conduct of Dr. Billings ; Jonathan 
Leavitt was chosen Deacon. Dr. Billings by the vote 
of the church was permitted to return to their christian 
fellowship, in compliance with his desire, notwithstand- 
ing he differed from them in some of his religious senti- 
ments, particular in his opinion that all mankind will re- 
ceive a final and evei lasting salvation by Jesus Christ. 

May 2, 1805. Dea Ebenezer Graves and Dea. Da- 
vid Smead excused at their request from serving any 
longer as Deacons, on account of age and infirmities. 
Solomon Smead, Esq. and Proctor Pierce were then 
chosen. 

Feb. 24, 1806. This day read Jay's sermons, among 
others that upon Ezek. xxix. 17-20. from which a ques- 
tion arose in my mind, viz. Why Nebuchadnezzar 
should be rewarded for undesignedly executing the will 
of God, in conquering Tyre, when the Assyrian was 
punished for accomplishing the purpose of God in fight- 
ing and laving waste his own covenant people as related 
in 10th Chap. Isaiah. The only reason for this differ- 
ent treatment I could think of was this — it was in the 
heart of the Assyrian in what he did to act against the 
most High God, whereas Nebuchadnezzar had no such 
purpose in conquering Tyre. 

Read the G. Gazette and saw in it Miss 's mar- 
riage to . She had a right not to call upon me to 

administer the marriage covenant, but I placed it among 
many other marks of inattention and disrespect, of this 
kind which I have met with in this place and which while 
they shew a want of regard to religion, do also evidence 



128 HISTORY OF 

perhaps that there has been wanting in me a manifesta- 
tion and due attention and respect to my people. 

In the evening read the New York Herald and waa 
glad to find it confirmed that victory turned in favor of 
the Russians, in that great battle of the 2d, 3d and 4th 
Dec. last. But so many slain by fightings which come 
from the lusts of men, is a melancholy consideration.— 
May the Most High hush the European nations and all 
others to peace. 

I have this day had no society but my family and even 
this is amusing — without which, like the man who lost 
his mouse in the prison, I should be miserable. Solitude 
must be my portion the remaining part of life, seeing my 
nearest and best earthly friend is in the grave* ; but I 
think of the moral philosopher, who said he was never 
less alone than when alone. My people appear not to 
think on me except when I visit at their houses, which is 
rarely by reason of my advanced age and particular cir- 
cumstances, but I think much on them and should feel 
rejoiced could I prepare suitable entertainment for them 
on the Lord's day, and properly perform in other respects 
the duties of a Gospel minister. 

March 7, 1S06. Read the Newspapers with greedi- 
ness, but caught little or nothing but what it was best to 
throw away. 

April 5, 1806. I know not but that I make myself 
daily uneasy because my troubles are not greater than 
they be, but small as they are they will disturb and vex 
me, especially the inattention which the people pay to 
what I suffer by the depreciation of money. Not one 
man from 1774, has shown as I recollect, any disposi- 
tion to make any consideration, but all have and contin- 
ue to pay the mere nominal sum, in the most advantage- 
ous way they can, and appear glad they have an oppor- 
tunity to pay it so easily, and unless I am too jealous, 

*Mrs. Newton died in October previous. 



GREENFIELD. 129 

they are not so kind to me, as those among them who 
are friends to one another. Mrs. A. L. excepted, none 
of them upon any particular occasion, as sickness, 
deaths, funerals, associations, have complimented me 
with a piece of fresh meat, for nearly perhaps forty years. 
This is very singular and once unlooked for, but soon 
expected after my settlement in the ministry. I have 
Sometimes suffered great inconvenience in consequence 
of this neglect — have lived below what I wished and 
what I thought reasonable and could pot entertain friends 
without too much trouble to Mrs. Newton, a woman 
given to hospitality and whose feelings were hurt through 
life, that she was noticed by those she loved and who 
were in affluent circumstances, with so little generosity, 
and with so much less than is common for ministers 
wives of her good accomplishments to experience this 
oppressive and cold neglect, which in my view has been 
used towards nie has made my work of the ministry hard 
and irksome, as might naturally be expected in one who 
loves the world and friendship as well as I do. 

But what more especially disquiets me is an appre- 
hension that this anti-ministerial conduct in my people, 
is owing in a measure to something wrong in myself, 
which they know and feel, but do not inform me of — for 
I hear nothing as an apology but my wealth, which it 
seems they have a faculty of estimating high, so that a 
few acres of ground here, in a peculiar expensive situa- 
tion, is much better to live upon than double the acres in 
Leyden or Colerain. It will be, I presume, the little time 
I have to live, as it has been, except worse ; and as I 
can see more faults in myself than in others, my com- 
plaint must be principally turned against myself and my 
business be to amend my own heart and life, and go on 
in the ministry cheerfully and faithfully, according to my 
remaining powers, or pass into retirement and show a 
pemtential, humble Christian life there ; my time I would 
recollect, is short for remaining either in public or private 
12 



130 HISTORY OF 

station, being now near the close of the 69th year of my 
life. 

Friday, May 2, 1806. Spent my time in my study, 
and think I feel best when I have least to do wilh the 
world in general and though I do not wish to die, I long 
to be where the wicked cease from troubling and the 
weary are at rest. 

April 28, 1808. It being signified to the church that 
Samuel Guild had asked Deacon Graves to return a 
small pecoter vessel which he gave to the church more 
than 40 years ago. Voted that it should be returned 
upon his renewing his application. Said Guild was 
formerly an inhabitant of this town and a member of this 
church ; he has since turned Baptist after removing to 
Leyden, and whether his requesting his gift of 3s value 
back, is owing to a peculiar littleness of mind or some 
good and honorable motive, I am not called upon to re- 
cord. 

May 23, 1812. This day I am seventy-five years 
old. I shall not and I would not live always. 



The number of children and others, baptised by Dr. 
N. up to Dec. 20, 1803, was 827. 



GREENFIELD. 131 



CHAPTER IX. 

Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Men of Olden 
Times 

" For men are like the waves that roll 

Along the mighty deep — 
That lift their crests awhile and frown. 

And then are lulled to sleep; 
While other billows swelling come, 

Amid the foam and spray, 
And as we view their furrowy track, 

Sink down, and — where are they!" 

JAMES CORSS, THE HUNTER. 

James Corss was a mighty hunter, a very Nimrod in 
his day. The age of fishing and hunting, such as it was 
in the days of the fathers, has long since passed away. 
Such game as the Indian pursued, has, with him, the son 
of the forest, long since disappeared ; the fish from the 
river and the deer from the woods. 

Hunting, in modern phrase, is not a circumstance, 
not to be mentioned or compared with what was hunting 
and game in the olden time, and was then, of itself, an 
occupation. The hunting of our day is pretty much 
confined to the pursuit of a few harmless birds, squirrells, 
red and grey, chipmucks, partridges, rarely a coon, some- 
times a woodchuck, and under the favor, protection and 
patronage of the Commonwealth, to black birds, foxes 
and crows. The skunk nobody wants, yet is he, even 
he, sometimes hunted ; pah ! too strong, by half — igno- 
ble game. 

A noble stag or deer, such as once had their quarters 
hereabout, where once they stalked in majesty, free, un- 
confined, and almost undisturbed, as plenty as blackber- 
ries, or even the sneaking and dastardly varmynt, the 



1S2 HisTORr or 

wolf, would now be a great curiosity, and the whole 
town would be moved and collected to catch a glimpse 
at them. Their fellow tenants and companions of the 
forest, in their now degraded state, sometimes visit the 
land of their ancestors, but the deer never comes — and 
will never again occupy these haunts of men for their pas- 
ture ground. 

Our ancestors, in their annual (own meetings, elected 
deer-reeves, as much a matter of course, as we now do 
all the newly married men to take care of the inoffensive 
grunting swine, or surveyors of boards, plank, timber 
and slit work. 

Of the privations, hardihood, toils and dangers, fru- 
gal habits and unyielding spirit of the old hunters and 
first settlers, we can form no adequate idea. They were 
men of iron; bold, active, determined and persevering; 
neither dismayed by danger, frozen by cold, nor melted 
by heat. The hunter roamed free, far and wide over 
mountain and river, through dingle and copse and glen, 
regardless of town lines or state lines. He loved the 
range of the forest, the mountain and the river side, and 
the side of the stately deer. 

The forest and the wild were the hunters home, and 
mid all his exposures, by day and by night, his heart 
was unappalled ; and at night, after long and lonely 
wanderings — 

" He lays him down and rests his head, 
Upon a rock 'till morn; then rising fresh 
Pursues his wonted game, 
And if the following day he chance to find 
A new repast, or an untasted spring, 
Blesses his stars and thinks it luxury." 

Nature's volume was open before him, her fruits and 
flowers and all her stores, and he daily read, as well the 
m©9t sublime as the most simple of her pages. Disre- 
garding — indeed ignorant of the forms now governing 
society ; remote, for days together, from any human in- 



GREENFIELD. 133 

tercourse, he communes with nature and her works ; 
happy in the solitude of the deep, interminable woods, 
and his ample and undisputed range. 

To us, it would seem that the very silence and unbro- 
ken solitude of the vast forests must have been appal- 
ling. Nature, virgin nature, reigned there alone and 
there was her temple. He felt not his loneliness, for the 
woods were his home, and he cheerfully exchanged the 
endearments of his rude cabin, for his long and lonely 
rambles o'er hill and dale, unaccompanied, save by his 
rifle and trusty blood hound, unlike the lazy and pamper- 
ed puppies of our degenerate days, who shrink from the 
barking of the fox or even the sound of the " rabbit's 
tread.'' 

James Corss' hunting ground took in all the north 
part of this County west of the Conn, river, and the bor- 
dering towns in Vermont ; his trap path, as it was cal- 
led, was from trap plain, where the first meeting house 
stood, north to Bernardston. A trap was kept con- 
stantly set at the spring in front of the house of Samuel 
Pickett, Esq. He usually had two traps chained to- 
gether ; they were marked with three hacks on the bot- 
tom of the bar. Two of these traps have been found 
in the north part of the town within the last half century. 
He placed his bait on the bushes overhanging the spring, 
where the wolves resorted to drink, and in settling down 
after taking the bait, their tore le<j;s generally fell into and 
sprung his trap, and the dastardly and thievish miscre- 
ants were thus taken. 

There was a bounty of £4. on wolves, and accord- 
ing to an account of the exp'oits of James Corss, in this 
line, kept by one Eben^zer Nims, he received as boun- 
ty, £600— by others said $600, by others that he de- 
stroyed in his life time 900 wolves — (a glorious uncer- 
tainty rests over it,) at any rate he realized a snug for- 
tune for those days. A monument in the old burial 
ground) has the name of James Corss, died in 1783, 
12* 



134 HISTORY O? 

aged 90. He lived at the old house on the site of that 
oflate Judge Leavitt, a fort in the time of the Indian 
wars. This house was burned down, and Dan Corss, 
son of James, built the house, a little east, now owned 
by Mr. R. Hall. 

The wolf was a troublesome animal, cruel and thiev- 
ish. But the noble and gentle deer — where are they? 
Except a few about Sandwich, gone with the wild and 
persecuted Indian to the western wilds. These will soon 
bo wilds no longer, and where shall the Indian and the 
deer go then ? Answer me that. 

James Corss went a hunting two days in each week 
regularly, besides his occasional excursions. On one 
occasion he found a wolf in his trap, with one leg broken. 
The villain showed fight and made at him. James had 
grappled with too many of the family to be scared by 
him. Nothing daunted, he caught the marauder by his 
posterior appendage, vulgarly called the tail, and seiz- 
ing a small bush, as the fellow pulled ahead to get away, 
James would pull him back and switch him in no gentle 
manner. Thus they kept pulling and sawing in opposite 
directions, woif being willing to go and quit even, but 
James would n't let him, for he wanted the bounty, till 
hfi worried him out. 

NoxE.—In 1642, the Court of New Plymouth Colony 
enactedj that all the towns within the Government shall 
make wolf trapps and bayte them and look unto them 
dayly upon the penalty of X's a trap that shall be neg- 
lected. 

In 1G65, an act provides, That in every township, 
there bee two sufficient woulfe trapps and to bee con- 
stantly bayted and dayly attended upon the penaltie of 
five pounds. 

In 1(>S6, whoever shall kill a wolfe and make it suffic. 
knpwne to the gov. shall have four bushell of corne to bo 
r&ysfetf of the constablerick or liberties. 



GREENFIELD. 135 

ANECDOTES OF AARON DENIO. 

Mr. D. of whom a great many anecdotes are still told, 
was a native of Canada. His father was a Frenchman, 
Tradition informs us that he came to Deeifield when 
quite young, in company with some Indians, on a visit 
to a family by the name of Stebbins, who were related 
to him. When the Indians were ready to return, they 
were unable to find him, and returned without him. His 
connexions finding him very smart and active, were dis- 
posed to have him remain with them and concealed him, 
probably with his consent. Tradition further informs 
us that the Indians afterwards returned to Deeifield and 
committed depredations there in consequence of the de- 
tention of Mr. D. 

He kept a tavern for many years in the house now 
occupied by Miss C Willard, which he built and which 
has weathered the storms of nearly a century. He 
bought the estate of Joseph Allen, who removed to 
Bernardston about ninety years ago. 
* In all these ancient mansions, the fire places origin- 
ally used would hold a fourth of a cord of wood, and in 
cold weather often did. Wood was not then 21s. the 
cord. Haifa dozen persons might sit under and within 
their capacious mantle-pieces. 

This house was much resorted to, as well by the wea- 
ry traveller as by the merry men of Deeifield, and the 
country all about, and if the old linings of the walls bad 
memory and speech, they would unfold much of story and 
of song, and tell of many a revel which consumed the 
drowsy watches of the night, 
"When tales much older than their ale went round." 

In 1753, Mr. I), was chosen a Deer reeve, and a 
committee to supply the then district with preaching :— 
In 1754, one of the selectmen, and one of a committee 
to wait on Rev. Mr. Billing relative to his being instal. 



136 HISTORY OP 

led. He was, like his nation, spirited, active and lively. 
One day he said to Mrs. D. — My dear, what shall we 
have for dinner to-day ; what have you got in the pot 1 
To this she made no reply, or merely said, victuals. — 
He persisted in his inquiry. My dear, what have you 
got in the pot over the fire, I vill know. She, with the 
same indifference answered as before. Whereat the lit- 
tle patience with which nature had gifted him became 
utterly extinct. Nature could bear no more. He in- 
continently seized the aforesaid pot from its smoky hang- 
ings, saying, I I vill know what is in that pot, and 

hastily made his way to the brow of the steep hill back 
of the house, and furiously threw the unoffending vessel 
down the hill, and on it went, rolling and tumbling and 
tossing horribly, mid the steam of the boiling fluid, out 
came, mingled in dread confusion, pudding, potatoes, 
pork, beef, cabbage, beets and turnips, still on it went 
and on to the bottom of the hill, to the utter dismay and 
consternation of all peaceable, well disposed and good- 
potluck-dinner-loving citizens, and in evil example to all 
others in like kind to offend. He gained his point but 
lost his dinner. Since the days of Don Quixote was 
never such an adventure undertaken ; the attack upon 
the windmill is not to be mentioned on the same day. 

It seems probable that he was rather of a testy, im- 
patient humor, not peculiar to his nation, or at any rate, 
sometimes inclined to that mood, and that his customers 
and acquaintances thought proper at times to make it 
conducive to their own amusement. It was the custom 
of many of the good people of this town and Deerfield 
to meet at his house of an evening as often as once a 
week, for social converse, upon the affairs of state, and 
town; to hear and tell the news, to take care of their 
neighbor's characters and concerns ; prices current of 
all things bought and sold in the country, (for it should 
be noted here that the course of trade was then and long 
after, very different from what it now is, the produce 



GREENFIELD. 137 

of the country went into the hands of the traders in the 
country in payment for their goods and they transported 
it to market, many of them became their own teamsters 
and drovers,) all and singular, doubtless, matters and 
things in general ; prospects of the weather and the 
crops, and various and multifarious as are Bar-room top- 
ics, joking the worthy landlord and one another, whiling 
away in cheerful chat s wit and humor, sparkling and 
flashing like bottled beer, the drowsy hours of a winter's 
night. Where are they now ? Where the merry joke, 
the ioud laugh which would make the beams and rafters 
part from their fastenings I The sands ot their glass 
have long since run out ; long since themselves have 
loosened from their moorings, launched into the inter- 
minable Ocean of Eternity. 

On one of these occasions of their evening meetings, 
it was understood by his guests, among themselves, that 
no one should call for any refreshment as had been usu- 
al, in order to try what effect this new order of things 
would have upon the temper of their host. So said, so 
done. They conversed for a long time (so it seemed to 
the Landlord) upon topics which came up, but no hint 
or intimation came out of profit to him for the good fire. 
This state of things could not be long endured. Some 
change there must be He became very uneasy. He 
went in and out of the bctr frequently, sometimes rapidly, 
moving the tumblers and other furniture to and fro; 
from the fire to the bar, from the b;ir to the fire, putting 
on more wood, punching and stirring it, now this stick 
now that ; his movements became more and more rapid 
and impatient, until at length he was anticipated, that 
patience so often tried became totally and entirely ex- 
hausted, defunct. He exclaimed suddenly, a good fire 
gentlemen, good fire, very good fire, and the astounding 
question, gentlemen what will \ou please to have to 
drink ? This was enough — the old walls of the mansion 
shook with the burst and roar of laughter which ensued, 



138 HISTORY OF 

and how many went home sober, verily, doth not appear. 

On one occasion, he was at the mill with grain to be 
floured, and alter it was poured into the hopper, Uncle 
David, as he was called, proceeded to take the toll as 
usual, and continued dipping in the toll dish, time after 
time, the toll increasing, the grist diminishing, fearfully 
diminishing, until Mr. D. began to be alarmed at the 
probable consequences of this novel, and to his view, 
unusual and unwarrantable procedure. Not being over- 
stocked with that cardinal and absolutely indispensible 
virtue, patience, nor suspecting that Mr. W. was merely 
putting it to the trial, and thinking thaV after such oft re- 
peated visits of the toll dish to his gifst, forbearance had 
ceased to he a virtue, he burst out : I do sw — ee — r, 
Mr. Wells, if you will take the grist and leave me the 
toll, I will very much thank you. 

A traveller came in one day asking for a small matter 
of bread and cheese (wherewith to allay the cravings of 
hunger,) which were directly set before him — Landlord 
Denio, as ha was always railed, meanwhile watching his 
performance. The onslaught upon the eatables, was 
powerful and destructive enough for a man who wanted 
rather a whole sirloin than such dry materials. Denio 
watched the slices of bread and cheese, disappearing one 
after the other in quick succession, with consternation 
and dismay, till his patience could~ hold out no longer, 
and he addressed the astonished traveller — " if you will 
stop now, you are welcome, entirely welcome to what 
you have eat." How the affair ended the deponent 
knoweth not. 



EBER ATHERTON. 

Many anecdotes are related of his propensity to tell 
great stories. He resided in the village and in 1767 
was a surveyor of highways. He used to relate that on 



GREENFIELD. lS9 

one occasion, he wanted to go to the island at the falls 
to take Shad, but could find no boat, they being all at 
the island. He bethought him that Mr. Howland, living 
near by, had a pair of snow shwes, which he procured 
and easily succeeded in getting to the island on the backs 
of the shad. He took that day, according to his own 
account, and as he chose to express it, one thousand and 
fifteen hundred. The incredulous reader may entertain 
honest, nay, very serious doubts as to the truth of this, 
and call it a w fish story," but cannot expect the writer to 
go about to establish the truth of one so old. It seems 
probable the man had a queer idea about the relation 
of facts. 

The following statement, from good authority, furnish- 
es no extravagant idea of the immense numbers which 
literally thronged the Connecticut half a century ago. 
The father of an individual now living in this town, on 
one occasion while fi-hing on tire island at the falls, at 
the usual season, April and May, (a June shad was des- 
pised ; " as thin as a June shad." is or was a common 
expression for leanness,) found it impossible to force 
his scoop net entirely into the water, by one third at 
least, the fish were so numerous, and his net so quickly 
filled, while the river literally swarmed and was alive 
with them, and they lay on the shore in piles like hay- 
cocks. Indeed, they were so common and cheap that 
people were ashamed to be seen carry ing them home 
and took every precaution to avoid being seen with 
them. Many and whimsical anecdotes are still related 
by the old folks, of the expedients resorted to, to avoid 
discovery. They were sometimes sold as low as a penny 
each. 

Note. Those families of the name of Atherton who 
have resided in town from early times are descendants of 
Rev. Hope Atherton, of Hatfield, who was with the army 
at the Fall fight in 1676, and in the retreat was separated 



140 HISTORY OF 

Eber used to relate the following story of what occur- 
red to him when on a visit to Boston about the time of 
the American Revolution. In the course of his rambles 
about the town, he chanced where some persons were 
looking through a telescope to discern some British ves- 
sels of war lying at anchor at a distance in the harbor, 
not at all or scarcely visible by the naked eye. He re- 
quested the privilege of looking through this, to him new 
and wonderful instrument, and it was granted. The 
simple folk of this village would not believe a word of 
his statement that the instrument which so much assisted 
his vision could also add to the scope or capacity of the 
organ of hearing. He said he could plainly see the 
red coats and yellow buttons of the soldiers on board, 
and such horrid oaths and imprecations as they uttered, 
he had never before heard, and they continued their pro- 
fanity as long as he continued looking at them, 'till it 
loo ed blue all around. But the earthquake at Shelburn 
mountain, which he saw, when hunting for coons, which 
when the earth closed sent the leaves up to the heavens, 
was a caution. — Whether Eber expected to be believed 
in his statements, or only took this way to amuse himself, 
does not appear. Evidently, there is in some men from 
their youth up, a want of a proper sense of the moral 
turpitude of falsehood ; a kind of predisposition to it, 
with an apparent notion that it is of little consequence 
whether they tell truth or not. There is also a pre- 
disposition or natural propensity in others to some par- 
ticular vice, some besetting sin ; of the impropriety of in- 
dulging in it they undoubtedly have a much less vivid idea 
than others and are less prone to resist. Hence in our 

from them. Lost and hungry, he offered himself as a 
captive to the Indians — who from mysterious cause, 
would not receive him ; when he spoke to them they 
would not answer, and when he moved towards them, 
fled away. He followed the course of the river and go$ 
home. 



GREENFIELD. 141 

judgment of men, this fact is to be taken into considera- 
tion ; placed in the same situation, having the same 
dispositions, sensibilities, propensities — meeting with the 
same temptations, &c. should we come out of the fur- 
nace of life, less scathed than they. Those who have 
never been tempted or exposed, may call their coldness 
virtue, if they choose. Every man is himself the great- 
est sinner he knows of, because he knows more of the 
depravity of his own heart and motives, than another can 
know, and less of his neighbor than himself must know. 
Therefore judge charitably of the motives of others, 
and err rather on the side of charity. Men judge of 
persons and things, as they either oppose or favor their 
opinions, or interests. 



PHILLIS AND JACK. 

The following anecdotes of the Olden Times, may 
amuse some of my young readers, (such I hope to have) 
and I trust will not be considered out of place here, 
though not of a particularly serious character. It will 
be recollected, that, previous to the year 1780, (he hold- 
ing of slaves was allowed, and slavery existed in a mild 
form in New England, and though few were held in 
bondage hereabout, still there were some. One, a fe- 
male, Tenor, was a slave to Rev. Mr. Newton. Phillis, 
comely, fair, and well to look upon, free as air, so far 
as she felt or knew or cared, and gay as the lark, was 
the daughter of Tenor (she was called old Tenor, for 
she had a daughter of the same name and complexion), 
lived with her mother at Mr. N\s. Tenor, it appears, 
was a very staid, well behaved and kind hearted person- 
age ; that dusky covering enclosed a heart alive to the 
best sympathies of human nature. On the event of her 
death, Dr. N. preached a sermon, in which among other 
matters and things, he gave her the character of being 
" no pilferer," &c. 

13 



142 HISTORY OP 

At the period of the following adventures, this young 
damsel was about sweet sixteen. Another female of the 
same complexion lived near, and a colored man named 
Jack, lived with Col. More. This trio frequently met, 
and on one occasion the two females were amusing 
themselves by getting into a barrel, with both heads out, 
and rolling part way down the hill west of the High 
School, by some means contriving to stop themselves 
midway of the hill. They persuaded Jack to believe 
that this was most excellent fun. Whereupon he cou- 
rageously entered the cask aforesaid and immediately 
proceeded on his tour of observation and pleasure, wool 
erect, assisted no doubt in starting by a gentle push 
from the ladies aforesaid. Neither remonstrance nor 
intreaty would stop the cask in its rapid and downward 
career, but on it went and on, mid the chuckling and 
laughter of these cruel damsels, until it encountered 
one of the large walnut trees we have mentioned, when 
with a horrible crash, the hoops and staves of the barrel 
parted company and scattered themselves far and wide 
in all directions. Poor Jack was terribly bruised, but 
after some time, recovered, not however again to try the 
experiment or renew the journey. But still it seems 
he did not lake. 

His visits at the Rev. Doctor's were frequent, and 
becoming rather tedious to Phillis, she resorted to an 
expedient to be rid of them. At one of his evening 
visits, she was carding tow, and contrived to shuffle 
some of it near and about his feet without his particular 
notice or suspicion, when suddenly as if by accident, she 
let the candle fall among it, and the flame spread up and 
around 

" Like flambeau flashing to the morning skies." 

The ceiling was of wood, and for a time the house 
seemed in danger, but the fire was soon got under, by 
the assistance of the good Doctor and his family, who 



GREENFIELD. 143 

were aroused by the uproar from their meditations in the 
next room. Phillis confessed, Jack was sadly burnt, 
took the hint, and troubled her with his visits but very 
seldom, after this explosion. 

As for Phillis, she never once thought of marrying 
Jack — no indeed — not she — the disparity in their age 
was too great ; she was, as has been mentioned, about 
sweet sixteen, in the very bloom of youth, and life and 
beauty, and he was about 40 — perhaps a twelvemonth 
or so, more. — Here was fearful odds. Such a project 
would have been, in her view, ridiculous in the extreme ; 
no, it would never do, and whether he ever went so far 
in the journey of courtship as to pop the question in her 
ebony ear doth not appear. — Certain it is that she un- 
dertook to prescribe for the wounds he received in the 
affair of rolling down hill in the barrel. The most 
grievous wound was on the shin. The application she 
recommended was either beef brine or dry salt ; the 
best authority says, the latter, and she suited the action 
to the word by immediately throwing salt into the wound. 
Since the days of Hippocrates or Galen, such a pre- 
scription or remedy was never thought of, heard of, 
read of or conceived. Besuie, salt will cure and pre- 
serve fresh meat, and it may be that " upon this hint she 
spake," reasoning perhaps philosophically. This was 
a little too much. Human nature could bear no more 
There is a point beyond which endurance cannot go. 
Any thing else he might have borne. Time, language, 
and the reader's patience would fail, should an attempt 
be made to describe the contortions, the faces and gri- 
maces he made on the application of the brine prescrip- 
tion. Suffice it to say, he broke the tie which bound him 
to this faithless and treacherous damsel, this mistress of 
his affections, and was never again seen among the train 
of her admirers. Phillis afterwards married CsesarFine- 
mur, the son of Romus and Rose, and had 13 children, 
all of whom died save one. One of her descendants 



144 HISTORY OF 

seems to partake somewhat of her frolicksome humor 
and freaks of fancy, having recently been engaged in a 
riot as a partner, on the Shutesbury common, and is now 
receiving his punishment. As for any further account of 
Jack, whether he ever again became entangled in the 
meshes of lov«, the historian sakh not, because he 
knoweth not. — But the trick which Phillis played off 
upon a Rev. Clergyman who called on an extreme cold 
day after a long cold ride, by mixing too much strong 
water with that of weaker composition, it will not do to 
tell of— no that will never do. 



COL. WILLIAM MOORE. 

The name of William Moore, a native of Rutland, 
Worcester Co. although he is unknown to any of the 
present generation, and to few of the present inhabitants 
of this town, is still familiar to some, as that of an indi- 
vidual of great enterprise and business talents, of stately 
figure and fine personal appearance, a finished gentle- 
man of the old school, much respected and beloved, and 
the pioneer of business in this place. Those who re- 
member him seem to delight to talk about him and his 
day among them, and his name is associated in the 
minds of men with every thing generous and noble. He 
was, in fact, the soul and life of business and enterprise. 
He erected on the site of the present grist-mill, a mill 
six stoiies high, for flouring wheat, which was then 
abundant in this region. He had at the same time in 
operation, works for making nails, coopering, preparing 
Ginseng, Tanworks, a potash, where a great business 
was done ; a slaughter house, in which 500 head of cat- 
tle were barrelled yearly ; a tallow house, dry house, 
two stores, one between the present Stage House and 
Hall and Co's Store, where the road now passes (it is 



GREENFIELD. 145 

not many years since this now great thoroughfare was 
called the new road) and another called the large or 
great store, where the county gaol now stands. To use 
the language of those who now speak of him, " he em- 
ployed an army of men," but as the saying is, " he had 
too many irons in the fire." 

He was at one period largely concerned in business 
at Hartford, Conn, and Peacham, Vt. and now resides 
in Montreal — an Inspector of Beef. — He came here 
about the year 1784. Very little mechanical or mer- 
cantile business had been done in the town previous to 
his commencing, and by his means some of those now 
living here, and men of enterprise and industry, became 
inhabitants, and were for a time in his employ — Capt. 
Ambrose Ames, a native of Bridgewater, in nail making, 
— the late Mr. Benjamin Swan, David Wait and Mr. 
William Wait, from Groton, in the coopering business, — 
and about that time many others established themselves 
here, among whom were the late Col. Eliel Gilbert, 
a native of Brookfield, a man of enterprise and for 
many years a Representative of the town, — Mr. Samuel 
Pierce, from Middletown, Connecticut, and others. 

Note. The upper story of Moore's Mill was in the 
time of the late war occupied by S. Hunt & Co. for a 
cotton factory, and afterwards by Joel Parker. A small 
cellar under the mill was used in Col. Moore's day, as 
tradition says, by Mr. Goffe, the miller, and one Jenks, 
a one armed man, for counterfeiting silver coin. They 
were taken, and Goffe turned state's evidence. Goffe 
erected a dam some distance below the cutlery works 
and a little above the old brick yard, without right, and 
abutted it on Moore's land ; he and his workmen cut 
away one end of it, and the next flood swept away the 
balance. The Oil Mill on the east side, formerly im- 
proved by A. Ames and S. Pierce, was taken down a 
few years ago. — The other buildings, improved by Mr. 
Martindale as a satinet factory, and the sawmill, Stc. 
were swept away in a flood, Dec. 1836. 
*13 



146 HISTORY OP 

Previous to Col. Moore's day the mills were owned 
by Mr. David Wells, familiarly known by the name of 
Uncle David, who is remembered by very few. He 
gave a bell to the school district in this village, on which 
his name is inscribed ; his grave is among us — without 
a stone to mark the spot — the identical place of his 
sepulture no man knoweth to this day. " But little he 
recks if they'll let him sleep on." Peace to his ashes. 
His heirs inherited his estate in the usual course of such 
matters, neglecting, perhaps forgetting the proper tribute 
of respect due the dead. In his day Salmon and Shad 
were plenty in our rivers. He once observed a salmon 
attempting to leap over the dam of the mill in Green 
river ; at the second leap he went some distance down 
the stream before he turned to make his effort to leap 
the dam, and rose far enough up by his leap barely to 
touch the top of the dam with his gills ; falling back, he 
went still farther down the stream than before, and turn- 
ing again, as if to acquire a momentum, renewed his 
efforts and leaped at least six feet above the top of the 
dam, and passed into the stream above. This looks like 
reasoning and calculation. The above fact was recently 
communicated to the writer by a respectable citizen of 
Deerfield. Salmon were formerly taken as far up as 
Whitingham, though rarely. 

His Courtship. — The latter part of his days were 
passed in the family of the late Mr. Timothy Hall, who 
lived where Col. t). Root now does, where he died a 
bachelor, at an advanced age. Tradition informs us 
that he had contracted matrimony with a lady, whose 
name is not known, and that it was broken off by the 
following queer circumstance. It was the custom some- 
times at raising buildings, to invite those who assisted, 
which then comprised all the neighborhood, (as occa- 
sionally at this day) frequently a whole town, to a supper 
got up expressly for the occasion. Such a case occurred 
to Uncle David. The lady referred to was present, and 



GREENFIELD. 147 

he invited her to take the head of the table and do the 
honors thereof to the guests. Whether from native dif- 
fidence, or from an idea that it was improper, .or from 
coquetry, or because her love was cold, or from some 
one of the inexplicable, unmentionable freaks of fancy, 
to which females are liable and sometimes give way, 
(for who can sound the depths of a woman's mind (or 
man's either) or find an answering reason to his queries 
thereunto relating) or whether she was, to use a mean- 
ing, though vulgar phrase, " one of the > unac- 

countables," cannot now be told : but she persisted in 
declining the intended honor, which he had probably 
long calculated to confer upon her as a signal mark of 
his love and affection. Neither tradition nor the faith- 
ful page of history throw any light upon this matter. 

This was a disappointment so unlocked for, so unex- 
pected, so mortifying to his feelings, that he could not 
brook it. " The iron entered into his soul." As this 
was his first love, so it was his last : as he had never 
loved before, so he never loved again. Their courtship 
ended then. 

* O woman, in our hours of ease, 

* Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 

* When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
1 A ministering angel thou !' 

Thus sahh the poet, and so far as the observation and 
experience of the writer goeth, he confirmeth the truth 
of the poet's affirmation. 



The Huskings of those days which collected whole 
neighborhoods of young and old, were (and until within 
the last twenty years continued to be) great occasions, 
of evening industry, feasting and mirth : and not equal- 
led in their simple neighborly exchange of good feeling, 
by the more refined taste, distinctions, false delicacy, 



148 HISTORY OF 

sickly refined formal intercourse, and buckram stiffness 
of these later days. To my mind, reader, those days of 
simple habits, frank and open intercourse and manners ; 
the equal footing upon which all met ; the warm and 
cordial welcome to all of every degree, if well behaved ; 
— have a charm which the formal and heartless meetings 
of this day cannot give : though more fashionable and 
genteel, 'tis hollow all — and unmeaning — sincerity is not 
there. Upon their like, those patriarchal days, we shall 
not, here, again look. Men then lived more according 
to nature, and a fine coat and polished shoe were not 
necessary to command attention and respect, and the 
poor were as good as the rich. 



Capt. Isaac Newton, was of that class of liberal 
minded and benevolent men, whose views are enlarged, 
who live for the good of others, as well as their own, 
and look upon all mankind as their brethren* and do not 
confine their charity to party or sect. In him frankness, 
sincerity, liberality and benevolence, dwelt without stint 
or measure ; and ' even his failings leaned to virtue's side.' 
Many a widow and orphan have blessed him for his kind 
care of their interests, and his reward was better than 
gold. 

' He chid the wandering, but relieved their woe.' 

Holy spirit of benevolence, thou comest to the wounded 
mind, as to the expecting Eastern city, the caravan long 
wandering o'er desert sands, 

* While Mecca saddens at the long delay.' 
or as Ossian would say, like a beam of the East arising 
in a land unknown. 

It is no matter where such men are born, * to whom 
related or by whom begot,' nor of what complexion they 
are. He was frank, open and plain, in all be said and 






GREENFIELD. 149 

did ; of an intelligent and sound mind. His townsmen 
were well aware of this, and resorted to him as to a pa- 
triarch for advice and counsel. Instead of consulting 
the lawyer in all cases, (they did not visit them as much 
in that golden age as now) they consulted with such men 
as Capt. Newton. The memory of such men is blessed ; 
like the twinkling luminaries of the sky, their character 
and influence shed a mild radiance all around. His 
father was brother to Dr. Newton ; they were from 
Durham, Connecticut, and were among the earl) settlers 
of this town, then almost a wilderness, and he and the 
Doctor " were of a piece." He came to this town be- 
fore or soon after the Doctor, at the age of 21, and 
struck the first blow with the axe among the sons of the 
forest, on the farm where Deacon Curtis Newton now 
lives, which as all the land owned by the Newtons, 
was then a hemlock swamp, which he bought for 7s. 6d. 
an acre, and built the house there now standing. He 
spent the summers clearing his land, winters, worked 
for the Doctor at 20s. a month, and endured all the 
hardships incident to settlers in a cold barren region. 
He was a professor of religion from his youth, imputing 
his conversion to the early impressions received from, 
and the kind teachings of a pious mother. How lasting, 
how pure and hoiy are impressions received from this 
source. — They come to us in after life, mid our play- 
things, our follies, and the cares of manhood. "We may 
not be as good as we should be ; but for these, we might 
have been much worse. 

Before the age of 22, he had never had an overcoat, and 
then only a second hand one, and no education except 
what his mother taught him, and two weeks instruction 
from Dr. Goodrich, of Durham. He enjoyed life better 
than most men, and was always disposed to look on the 
bright side of things ; he considered religion the work of 
life and not of a moment ; his religion was that of tho 



150 HISTORY OP 

heart. The first part of his life was darkened by the 
loss of two wives, and five first born children. 

To say that he was a friend to his country and his 
fellow man, would be too weak an expression of his feel- 
ings. He loved them. He was one of the first who 
came forward in town and voted to risk life and 
fortune, for the Independence of his country ; was out 
several times, three months at a time, with the militia ; 
was at Fort Edward on short allowance when Burgoyne 
was taken ; at West Point when Arnold fled from the 
consequences of his treachery, on board the Vulture, 
and for the first time in his life saw "Washington, who 
was there looking after Arnold ; 

" 'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, 
" One glance at their array ;" 

received the commission of Captain, July 1, 1781, the 
same day on which he was ordered to West Point, and 
took the command of 113 men. 

On his return home he called out his company at the 
Old North Meeting House (now demolished), and 
formed them into platoons, which was then a new mode 
here, it never having been done before ; it was an inno- 
vation upon Indian file, which astonished the people. 
He cared not for office, but the people cared to have 
him in office as often as they could. He was twenty-one 
years assessor, selectman, overseer of the poor, and 
several times member of the Legislature, &c. &c. 

As was his life so was his death, peaceful and serene : 
not a cloud settled upon his horizon or obscured his 
vision. His earnest prayer was, that he might not out- 
live his mind and usefulness ; he was willing to depart 
at any time, and spoke of his last change as of the or- 
dinary business of life. He seemed to retire from life, 
like one well satisfied ; who had had enough ; and to 
resign himself like an obedient child to the will of a fa- 
ther, in whom it confides as knowing what is best for its 



GREENFIELD. 151 

happiness. He trusted in Him " whose fan is in his 
hand, who will gather his wheat into his gamer." 

In the old burying ground a little east of the old meet- 
ing house site and near the scene of his early labors, 
lie the remains of himself, his father, and his two bro- 
thers, John and Samuel Newton. He died in Decem- 
ber 1324, aet. 75, followed to the grave by the respect of 
all men, a shock of corn, indeed fully ripe. 

" So live, that when thy summons comes, to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night 
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain'd and sooth'd 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 



Capt. Caleb Clapp. — The lapse of a quarter of a 
century has not obliterated from the minds of a large 
portion of the population of this section of country, the 
memory of the twin brothers Capt. Caleb and Capt. 
Joshua Clapp ; the former a resident of this town, the 
latter of Montgomery, Vermont. Both were officers in 
tbfi war of the Revolution, of the same grade. The re- 
semblance between them was so perfect that they could 
not be distinguished the one from the other except by 
their dress. Both gentlemen of the old school, intelli- 
gent, affable, polite, and accessible to all. Both men 
of very sanguine temperament, at times seemingly en- 
joying life to the full, and again all nature seemed to 
them a blank, a desolation. The dark and all absorbing 
spirit of despondency and depression, (which occasion- 
ally takes possession of some peculiarly constituted 
minds) that grand leveller, and nullifier of talent and 
distinction, of which those who have never partaken, 



152 HISTORY OP 

can form no adequate conception, no, not even a remote 
idea, at times overwhelmed them, setting at nought the 
powers of reason. 

The sympathy existing between these high minded 
and honorable, and when the writer last saw them to- 
gether in 181T), venerable men, was as remarkable as 
the almost wonderful resemblance in their persons. Both 
were in comparatively easy circumstances, yet the first 
named had suffered considerably in the great Virginia 
land speculation. This sympathy showed itself in the 
closing act of their lives. 

The human mind is so constituted, in the great mass 
of men, as to submit, in ordinary circumstances, to losses 
irretrievable, and to evils which are without a remedy. 
Not so in all. In some men, disastrous events produce 
immediate insanity, and in others imbecility — while in 
others, adversity begets fortitude, a perseverance which 
never yields. These are the men of iron. Depress a 
man by adversity, by a long series of disappointments 
and losses in all his undertakings, let his hopes and as- 
pirations be laid low, let his enemies be among the rich 
and consequently influential ; steep in poverty, mull and 
grind him, with every whipper-snapper to join in the hue 
and cry, and then, why, what then ; if his heart is made 
of sheet iron and his nerves of steel, he may go calmly 
on his way and do as other men do. Screw him as long 
as he can bear it, that is merely the rheumatism, then 
give one more turn and it is the gout. 

Reader, whoever thou art who perusest these lines, 
whether thou art gentle or simple, wise or unwise, let 
your motto be, nil desperandum, never despair, don't 
give up the ship, for be assured, if you are true to your- 
self and to your God, although your path be dreary and 
lonely, 

' There is a Power whose care, 
« Will teach your way along this pathless coast.' 

' ™V re ' S a SWeet little cherub th^ sits up aloft, 
1 Who keeps watch for the life of poor Jack.' 



GREENFIELD. 163 

The brothers were natives of the County of Worcester, 
and served through the whole war of the Revolution. 
The subject of this notice died in 1812— his brother, 
the year previous. 

Note. Capt. Clapp, as well as others who bear that 
name in this country, are undoubtedly the descendants of 
Capt. Roger Clapp, who came to this country from Eng- 
land in 1 6-29 — was commander of the fort at Castle Island 
in 1665 — distinguished in his day for eminent piety and 
usefulness. 



Thomas Chapman. — Mr. Chapman was a native of 
Barford, Yorkshire, England ; a gentleman of scrupu- 
lous integrity and uprightness, of extensive rending, and 
great intelligence ar.d information : he had travelled much 
in the old world as well as in the new, and was a close 
observer of men and things. He resided some years 
in the East Indies, and was engaged in the rearing of 
silk worms, and in the silk business— residing some time 
at Bengal, and at Cossim-buzar. He resided subse- 
quently some years in his native land, which he loved, 
(as he did also this his adopted country,) when from 
some dissatisfaction, as is supposed, with the course of 
things in England, he came to this Western world, and 
resided some time at Ehznbethiown, New Jersey, was 
naturalized, and came to this (own about the year 1796 ; 
where now his ashes rest, in their last, long sleep, dis- 
charged from the cares of earth. 

His home was the home <»( hospitality, good old Eng- 
lish hospitality, and in his heart dwelt the law of kindness 
and good will to ail mankind. Affable and accessible 
to all, the young as well as the old, the humble as well 
as the exalted were Ciee to draw from the fund of in- 
formation he possessed, which was seemingly inexhaust- 
ible. Often, has the writer, who, though young, had the 
14 



154 HISTORY OP 

pleasure of his acquaintance and friendship, listened 
with intense interest i.> his conversation. 

" Still o'er those days my memory wakes, 
And fondly turns with miser care." 

In our intercourse with Hie world, we meet with so 
many sordid, and heartless, in whom all absorbing self- 
ishness seems to have blotted out the last spark of gene- 
rous and social feeling from the soul, that the mind 
lights with pleasure upon the history of the good and 
benevolent, like Noah's weary dove upon the olive 
branch, rising above the surrounding waste of waters 
in solitary loveliness, and loves to dwell upon them, as 
the wearv pilgrim upon an Oasis in the desert. Ravi 
apparent nanl<s in gurgite vaslo. 

Mr. C's reading in Theology was extensive ; it may 
be said to have been his favorite study : it left on his 
mind an unwavering belief in the Sacred Scriptures, in 
which belief he lived and died. 

" Within that sacred volume lies, 
The mystery of mysteries, 
And better never have been born, 
Than read to doubt, or read to scorn." 

On the 25th of May IS 19, his life went out like the 
apatk from the lamp which had long been feeble and 
flickering ; it was none in a momen'. 
" Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore, 
Of that vast Ocean you must sail so soon, 
And put good works (and fuilh) on board, and wait tho 

wind, 
That shortly blows us into worlds unknown." 

There are some who from inordinate selfishness, and 
judging others by themselves, seem to have no fellow 
feeling for any of the human race but their own relations : 
others whose love is confined to themselves alone ; and 
who never speak well of any human being, or if by ac- 
cident it be unwarily forced from them, it seems to come 
grudgingly. True it is, no one does more than his duty, 
few do that. 



GREENFIELD. 156 

The mists of prejudice may for a time obscure the 
characler of men ot worth, but like the vapors which 
surround the mountain's sumo it which ihey cannot hide, 
they are ultimately dispelled. He had his faults. Reader, 
place your hand over the place where an honest heart is, 
or ought to be, and ask v>urself if you have never sin- 
ned. If (he answer be affirmative, seek not to '• draw 
his frailties from their dread abode," Nathless there be 
some who appear and act as though they felt, We are not 
as other men are. 



1 Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore, 
' Who danced our infancy upon their knee, 

' And told our marvelling boyhood legends store, 
Of their strange ventures happ'd by land or sea, 
1 How are they blotted from the things that be !' 

THE LAST OF THE FISHERMEN. 

Timothy Hall, a native of Middletcwn, Connecticut. 
He came to this town not far from the year 1780. His 
sister was the wile of Rev. Dr. Newton. He established 
himself here in the halting business, and lived where 
Col. Root now does. He was an unpretending and 
humble man, who although possessing the best dispo- 
sition and kindest feelings imaginable, still loved to lure 
the finny race from their native element. He depreca- 
ted, yea, fairly abhorred the idea of taking them in seines 
or nets, or indeed in any other manner than by present- 
ing them the well baited hook, thus giving them an op- 
portunity to choose or refuse as to them should seem 
meet. This he considered as fair play ; here was no 
compulsion. His faithful steed, Pomp, when straying 
here and there to pick the scanty herbage by the way 
side, knew his voice, would give an answering neigh, 
come at his call, cheerfully submit himself to the bit and 
rein, and trot away in high glee, seemingly enjoying the 
fishing excursions as well as his kind hearted and indul- 



156 HISTORY OF 

gent master. It was, today above the Falls, on the calm 
bosom of the river, or along its romantic shores ; to- 
morrow, perhaps, some other part of the river, or at Lilly 
pond, or at Deerfield river ; the next at Fall river, or 
Mill Brook, or some other brook. If business prevented 
or the weather was unfavorable, just at night, slip down 
to Green river. 

" When the wind is in the West — 
The fish bite the best, 
When the wind is in the East, 
Fish bite the least." 

The frosts and snows of Winter afforded the fish no 
protection from his incursions. He knew all the good 
places, the times and seasons for taking them, and re- 
membered with peculiar pleasure every spot where he 
had drawn his line successfully. Such success attended 
his fishing, that many were, £*s occasion offered, desirous 
of accompanying him on these excursions, vainly think- 
ing, that under his patronage and countenance they 
would be sure of a good fry, as the phrase is. Side by 
side, few or none could compete wit!) him. Frequently 
would he take a companion's place, by exchange, who 
complained he could not obtain even a glorious 
nibble, while himself was in luck, and the fish seemed 
to follow him, for his neighbor in taking his place, would 
fare little or no better than before, while he himself 
would pull them out at will. By what magic, art, spell 
or charm, he had this power over the scaly fry, none 
could divine, yet some supposed he scented his bait with 
drugs. The secret died with him. His mantle has 
fallen on no one, although there are some hereabout 
who make pretensions to skill in the gentle art. 

The same kindness and attention to their good cheer 
which he shewed to his favorite horse Pomp, our friend 
also shewed to every member of his family, both journey- 
men and apprentices, to all his domestic animals, and to 
all his visiters. All were liberally and bountifully led, The 



GREENFIELD. 167 

fish came in for their share also. He usually carried 
a pocket full of corn on his fishing excursions, which he 
threw into the river where he intended to throw the line, 
to toll or call them togpther. Whether a particle of that 
selfishness to which all flesh is heir, mingled in this act, 
the reader will, exercising all due charity, and careful 
how he judges of other men's motives, determine for 
himself. At any rale, this manoeuvre commonly suc- 
ceeded well, and doubtless many a dace, trout, perch, 
with others of the scaly fry, partook of his bounty, who 
never nibbled at his hook. 

He was largely blessed in his companion for life : she 
was an eminent pattern of cheerfulness under all circum- 
stances ; of industry, humility and kindness, in whom 
pre eminently shone forth the christian virtues. Her 
price was above rubies. Blessed, thrice blessed be the 
memory of such angels of good, such benefactors of 
suffering humanity, such sisters of charity. Many, very 
many still live to revere and bless her memory. For- 
getting her own cares, ease and indulgence, to soothe 
the pillow of sickness and distress and the bed of death, 
and pouring into the wounded heart the oil of consolation 
and hope. Such good works are not to be purchased 
with money. Too good for earth, gone to enjoy her 
rest, a pure being in a nobler sphere. 

And here in relation to his kindness and indulgence 
to those in his employ, especially to the younger ones, 
the apprentices, I may be pardoned for saying that, what 
proceeded from that kindness and goodness of heart in 
him, was to many of them a permanent injurv, as they 
thereby failed of acquiring those business habits, so ne- 
cessary to success in life, which probably would not have 
forsaken them. The young as well as the old, are by 
nature inclined to ease and indulgence, whereas the 
tenure upon, or by which we hold our life, and the true 
enjoyment of it, as well as the means whereby we live, 
do not admit of it. That it is better to wear out than 
to rust out, is a prime and cardinal maxim. Occupation 
*14 



158 HISTORY OF 

is necessary to the health of the mind as well as the body ; 
it is indispensable to both. Employment is the grand 
panacea for those thick coming fancies, low spirits, 
spleen, that horrible depression of mind, which destroy 
the usefulness and happiness, and nullify the talents of 
many a son of Adam. Nil sine labore — nothing to be 
had without labor. Toil strings the nerves and clarifies 
the blood. Look at a cultivated field, the ears of whose 
crop are white to the harvest ; at that beautiful garden, 
rich in the production of plants and flowers. What a 
living picture is here of the beneficial effects of industry, 
apparently worthless before its hand was applied, the 
abode of weeds or barrenness. 

Somewhere about half a century ago, an unlucky, 
unworthy and mischievous frolick loving wight of an 
apprentice, by name Sam McDaniels, lived with our 
worthy friend the fisherman, who carried on a very con- 
siderable business. Sam knowing the peculiar humor 
of his mister, in the dark recesses of a mind fruitful in, 
and ever studying out some wicked and mischievous trick, 
contrived by the agency of an old cow with an unmusical 
bell attached to her neck, to disturb, for one night at least, 
the sleep of his kind master. After every body was 
asleep but himself and the Owls, he placed a bundle of 
hay under the window where his master slept, and drove 
the cow up to partake of it. The act of eating the hay 
would set the restless tongue of the bell in motion, which 
would awake his master, who would get up and drive 
the cow away. He, concealed near by, could hear his 
master's complaint, and reproaches at the innocent ani- 
mal, while himself convulsed his wicked sides with sup- 
pressed laughter. Thus he consumed the live long 
night, which was a cold one. Ever as the animal was 
driven, and he supposed his master had again got fairly 
asleep, he enacted over the frolic till the dawn of day. 
Careless of his own rest and ease, the love of fun and 
mischief was uppermost, and every other consideration 
yielded to it. 



GREENFIELD. 159 

The disposition to frolic, nt the present day, seems to 
vent itself in somewhat a different and more serious way. 

Mr. H. had a compeer—a man of" mighty bone and 
bold emprize," in this line ; of commanding size and 
figure, a man of brawn. To those who complained they 
could catch no fish, he would say, you do not use the 
right bait ; why, Mr. Potter, I bait with necessity, said 
he. 

He fell a martyr to the cause. His sons had often 
told him that he would lose his life in that stream in 
which he so much deiighted to fish, and so it was. On 
the 26th Nov. 1S28, he was enjoying his favorite sport 
in a canoe or skiff anchored out in the eddy a few rods 
below Deerfield River Bridge. By some movement of 
his the canoe lurched, and he was plunged headlong into 
the stream, some rods from the shore. He made an 
effort to reach the shore, and swam for a while ; but 
the coldness of the water, added to the infirmities of age, 
and his hat being drenched and falling down over his 
eyes, so far thwarted his exertions that he sunk, and 
although help was soon afforded, he was drawn from the 
water, no longer a prsoner of hope ; his spirit had taken 
its everlasting flight to that world where all is judged of 
truly. 

Admiral Potter was a native of New Bedford — his ao-e 

75 - » " , 

There was yet another of this brotherhood, these true 
disciples of Isaac Walton, and they delighted to fish 
together and talk over their exploits. This was no other 
than the late Mr. John Pinks. He was a native of 
Thetford, England, came over with Burgoyne, as master 
Tailor to ihe army, and was at the battle of Bemus's 
heights. He was a while at Cambridge, and while the 
army was at the barracks at Rutland, he was in an ad- 
joining town at work, and was not notified seasonably 
to join them on their return to England. He died here 
in February 1835, aged 79. 



160 HISTORY Of 

Lt. Calvin Munn. — This venerable and veteran 
soldier of the Revolution, settled in this town soon after 
the war. and was for a long series of years the host of 
the traveller and wayfaring man. He came to this town 
in 1792. 

His enterprise, his iron industry, his energy and deci- 
sion of character, with other sterling traits, are known 
and remembered by most of our citizens. The readi- 
ness and energy with which, upon occasion, he would 
handle the musket, like a plaything, and the rapidity of 
his action in going through the exercise, would even now 
at his advanced age, put a whole regiment of our modern 
militia warriors to the. blush. 

He was born at Munson, in Hampden County, in 
1761, enlisted into the army in 1777, and served during 
the war. Was at the taking of Burgoyne : on Rhode 
Island with Sullivan : in Lafayette's Infantry : was at 
the South with him at the capture of Cornwallis at York- 
town. The spring after the second three years men 
joined the army, he was selected as drill sergeant t6 
teach the recruits who joined the 4th Massachusetts re- 
giment, the first rudiments of discipline. Among the 
number was a young girl of about twenty, who enlisted 
under the name of Robert Shurtliff, but whose real name 
was Deborah Sampson. She was prompt and expert, 
and did her duty faithfully as a soldier. No one in the 
regiment, probably, suspected her to be a female. In 
the fall of the year, alter those who enlisted during the 
war were discharged, the regiment she belonged to were 
sent to Philadelphia, where she was taken sick : was de- 
ranged, and by the character of her symptoms, the phy- 
sicians discovered her sex. She was dressed accord- 
ingly, and sent home to her friends, and married a Mr. 
Gannett. A novel was written soon alter the war, of 
which she was the heroine, not one fourth part of which 
is true. She was not wounded as is therein related. 



GREENFIELD. 161 

Solomon Smead, son of David Smead. — The first 
Judge ol" Probate after the county was organised ; many 
years a representative, and one of the Governor's Coun- 
cil. He was much resorted to for counsel and advice. 
A remarkable sickness prevailed in his family in January 
1808. The disorder, which was a highly malignant, 
putrid fever, swept away Mrs. S. after a sickness of 
fourteen hours, and three children soon after, with a sick- 
ness nearly as brief. Another died the next month, of 
the same disorder. 



I am reluctantly compelled to omit here notices of 
other individuals, well worthy of a* passing tribute, for 
the reason that this already exceeds the number of pages 
intended, and the impatience of the Printer. I regret 
also to be obliged to omit a List of O. ituaries since the 
year 1790, and other articles intended to form an appen- 
dix. 



CHAPTER X. 
LAWYERS, PHYSICIANS, GRADUATES, &c. 

As it has been customary t in the Histories of Towns 
to insert the names of Graduates, Lawyers, &c. some 
of those who were born and have resided here, are here 
inserted. For the reason given in the last chapter, I 
am obliged to be more brief than I could desire. 

Edward Billing, Physician, son of the Rev. Edward 
B. G.ad. Harv. College. He studied Divinity, and 
preached for a short time. Pie practised Plv,sic here 
till his death — in 1806. 

Roger Newton, Jr. Grad. Yale Coll. 17S5. Tutor 
there in 1788. Studied Law with the late Governor 
Strong, at Northampton. A man of excellent endow- 
ments and great promise. He died in 17S9, aged 27. 



162 HISTORY OF 

WfLLiAM Coleman, a nntivo of Boston, studied Law 
at Worcester, with Judge Paine. He was in a great 
measure sell taught, though his early advantages wero 
good. When spoken of, he was always called Lawyer 
Coleman, a man of genius, talents and taste ; enterprise 
and perseverance. Nil teiigit quod non ornavit. He 
excelled in every thing, even in athletic exercises ; in 
music, dancing, skating, ball playing ; in writing, not one 
of our modern teachers, who can learn any and every 
body to write a good hand in 12 hours, could equal his 
neatness «f style— in every thing first and foremost, and 
finished every thing he undertook, except the houso 
he begiin to build ; succeeded in almost every thing ex- 
cept in the Great Virginia Land speculation, and although 
in this he thought at one time that he had realized some 
$-30,000 of as substantial material as our good Presi- 
dent's yeilow boys — yet it turned out like Maine specu- 
lations, mere moonshine ; 'twas mere brown paper, such 
as pedlars choose. This spirit of speculation makes 
men heartless, and converts tnero into cannibals. 

He afterwards went to New York, was the partner of 
Aaron Burr, and the intimate friend of Alexander Hamil- 
ton ; and finally the editor of the Evening Post, the 
leading and most influential paper on the Federal side ot 
politics, in the Union. 

Several of the tail and beautiful elms which are now 
the pride and ornament of this vilhge, were planted and 
watered by the hand of William Coleman. The corro- 
ding tooth of, time has levelled an ancient and spreading 
butternut, which stood a few rods south east from the 
house he built, and the towering old Hayscales still far- 
ther on, where now no land is. The very fertile and 
beautiful meadow west of these buildings was, within 
memory, covered with many lofty walnuts, sprinkled over 
the soil like an orchard, excepting the western part, 
which was covered with alders, among which and near 
the margin of Bull head pond, where is a fine spring of 
water, once stood the hut or wigwam of a solitary Indian. 



GREENFIELD. 163 

Walnuts of the finest quality and size, have been gathered 
by the cart load, from this tract. 

Mr. Coleman was appointed Clerk of the City Court, 
with a salary of $ 30U0. He was also a Reporter of 
Decisions, and published a volume of Reports which 
bear his name. In reporting the case of Levi Weeks, 
who was tried for the murder of Gulielma Sands, by 
throwing her into the Manhatien well, a note was sub- 
joined in which it was said that as Weeks had had a fair 
trial by a jury of his country and been acquitted, the 
public ought to acquiesce in the decision, &c. leav- 
ing an impression that Coleman believed him guilty. 
The brother of W. requested Mr. Celeman to alter this 
note or vary the phraseology, to which Mr. C. replied 
that it was too late, as the report was published and 
gone abroad. Mr. Weeks then offered him $500 if he 
would make the desired ah- ration, which Mr. Coleman 
declined doing. Ultimately Mr. W. offered $1500 for 
the suppression of the Report or for the edition. Mr. 
Coleman said, Mr. W. you are not worth money enough, 
neither is the City of New Yor!;, to buy me. Ever after, 
Mr. VV. became his attached and firm friend. An occa- 
sion soon presented for a trial. 

A painter, an acquaintance of Mr. C. applied to him 
to purchase an elegant picture he had executed, which 
being in distress for money, he offered to sell him for 
$ 500, and pressed him very earnestly to purchase it 
and relieve his distress. After some reflection, Mr. C. 
recollecting Weeks's passion for pictures, and knowing 
his wealth, said, I think I can find you a purchaser. He 
took occasion to call upon Weeks, and alter examining 
and commenting upon his pictures, of which he had a 
large and fine collection, observed, here is a space just 
large enough for an elegant picture I know of, it will 
fill this vacancy nicely, and ihen stated the case of the 
painter. The idea took ; C. went with Weeks to the 
painter's shop. The painter stated, as he had prcviouslj 
done to C. the great labor, care and time he had b" 



164 HISTORY OF . 

slowed upon it, and its value, but his necessities were 
such, he was induced to offer it for $300. Mr. Weeks 
was satisfied with the price, and the bargain was closed. 
— Such a man was William Coleman. Levi W. after 
his trial resided for a time at Bloody Brook, in this 
County, and was engaged in trade ; ultimately he be- 
came a vagabond, as is said. 

Jonathan Leavitt, son of Rev. R. Leavitt, of Heath. 
Graduated Yale Coll. 17-6. Studied Law at New Ha- 
ven, C. and settled here about the year 1799. Senator 

in , and for many years Judge of Probate and of the 

C. C. Plea?. Died in 1830, aged 65. 

Richard English Neweomb, son of Hezekiah New- 
comb, of Bernaittslon. Born at Lebanon, C. in 1770. 
Grad. Dart. Coll. 1793. Studied Law with William 
Coleman. Admitted 1796. Representative in 1805. 
County Attorney. Judge of Probate since 1821. 

Samuel Clesson Allen,* son of Joseph Allen, of 
Bernardston. Grad. D. Coll. 179i. Settled id the 
ministry at Northfield in 1795, which situation he relin- 

* It has been suggested that John vnd Edward Allyn, 
mentioned oa the 18 th page, cob Id not have been the 
sons of E I war.) Allyn who settled at Dedh.im, but might 
have been his Grandsons. The last named died in 1642. 
There were several of the name settled here in early 
times, among wham were David, Naah, John and Jo- 
seph, who m ty have been of a different family from Ed- 
ward. Joseph, the Grandfather of Han. Mr. A. removed 
from this town to BerHardston about 90 years since, and 
was one of the first settlers of that town. 

Capt. Joseph Clesson, the maternal Grandfather of 
Mr. A. was at (Cape Breton in 1740. He was taken by 
the Indians at Grave Brook, near Rocky Mountain, a 
little East of the village, from whom he suffered severe 
treatment ; and carried to Canada, where he was forced 
to run the gauntlet. From thence he was carried to 
France, where he was detained abaut three years and a 
half. J 



GREENFIELD. 165 

quished a few years after, studied Law with John Barrett 
and settled in New Salem. Senator. Elected to the 
13th Congress in 1816, and continued a member until 
the 22d Congress. Removed to this town about the 
year 1822. County Attorney soon alter the County 
was organised. He now resides at Northfield. Ho 
holds a deservedly high rank among the accomplished 
scholars and statesmen of New England. 

Elijah Alvord, son of Caleb Alvord. Studied Law 
with Judge Newcomb. Admitted in 1802. Has resi- 
ded here, except from 1805 to 1809 at Greenwich. Re- 
presentative. Member of Slate Convention in 1820. 
Received the hon. degree of A. M. at Dart, and Wil- 
liams Colleges. Register of Probate. Clerk of Courts 
since 1819. Palmam qui meruit, etc. 

Proctor Pierce, native of New Salem. Grad. Dart 
C. 1796. He kept the District School in this village 
several years — where all branches then studied, were 
taught, and where many were fitted for College. Scho- 
lars resorted to his School from abroad. He engaged 
in trade, and afterwards taught at Cambridge and Bos- 
ton. 

Avery Williams, son of Rev. H. Williams, of Leverett, 
a Graduate of the same College in 1804, succeeded 
Mr. P. in the same school. He settled in the ministry 
at Lexington. Died in 1816, aged 34. 

George Thomas Chapman, son of Thomas Chapman. 
Born in Devonshire, England, in 1786. Graduated D. 
Coll. 1804. Studied Law with Judge Newcomb. Ad- 
mitted in 1808, and practised a few years at Bucksport, 
Maine. Studied Divinity, and took orders in the 
Episcopal Church. Ten years Rector of Christ Church 
in Lexington, Kentucky. Received the degree of D. D. 
from Transylvania University in 1824. — Now settled 
at Newark, New Jersey. His published works are, 
Sermons upon the ministry, worship and Doctrines 
of the Episcopal Church, and Sermons to Presbyteri- 
ans. 

10 



166 HISTORY OF 

Hooker Leavitt, son of Rev. R. Leavitt, of Heath. 
Member for a time of Dart. Coll. Studitd Law with 
his brother, Judge Leavitt. Admitted in 1811. Regis- 
ter of Deeds, and County Treasurer. 

Rodolphus Dickinson, son of Col. T. W. Dickinson, 
Deerfield. Grad. Yale Coll. 1805. Studied Law at 
Northampton with John Taylor. Admitted 1808. Prac- 
tised at Springfield till 1811. Clerk of the Courts in 
this County from 1811 to 1819, when he took orders 
in the Ep Church and removed to the upper section of 
South Carolina, and was instrumental in the formation 
of two Parishes, Greenville and Pendleton. During the 
first eighteen months of alternate service there, he tra- 
velled more than 7000 miles on horseback. Some of 
the most distinguished men of South Carolina were his 
parishioners, and his services were held in high estima- 
tion. He returned to Deerfield in 1832, and has since 
officiated in a parish in Montague. Not having taken 
letters dismissory from the Bishop of South Carolina, 
he is still canonically attached to that Diocese. Among 
his published works are several Law and School Books; 
Geographical and other works : a translation of the New 
Testament. In regard to the latter, it has been deemed, 
by some at least, that he has been traduced, and that 
many assertions made by critics, respecting it, are as- 
sumed and unfounded. 

Elihu Lyman, son of Maj. Elihu Lyman. Grad. D. 
Coll. 1803. Studied with Judge Newcomb. Admitted 
1806. Sheriff of the County from 1811 to 1S19. Prac- 
tised Law at Greenwich. Senator from Hampshire Co. 

Jos. S. Lyman, son of Maj. E. L. Grad. D. Coll. 
1805. Studied and practised Law at Cooperstown, N.Y. 
Member of Congress. 

Rejoice Newton, son of Capt. Isaac Newton. Grad. 
D. Coll. 1807. Studied with Judge Newcomb, and 
with E. H. Mills. Admitted in 1810. Commenced 
practice in Worcester with F. Blake. County Attorney 



GREENFIELD. 167 

for several years, and Representative in 1829 — 30, 31 
Senator in 1834. 

George Grennell, Jr. son of George Grennell. Grad. 
D. Coll. 180S. Studied with Judge Newcomb. Ad- 
milted in 1811. Senator in 1824. County A ttorney. 
Elected member of Congress in 1827. Declined re- 
election in 1838. 

Franklin Ripley, son of Jerom Ripley. Grad. 1). 
Coll. 1^9. Studied Law at Cooperstown s N. Y. and 
at Northfield with John Barrett. Admitted 1812. Prac- 
tised Law at Northfield. Cashier of the Greenfield Bank 
since its establishment. 

David Willard, son of Beriah Willard. B. 1790. 
Grad. D. Coll. 1809. Studied with Judije Newcomb. 
Adm. 1812* 

Daniel Wells, son of Col. D. Wells. Grad. D. Coll. 
1810. Studied with Elijah Alvord. Adm. 1813. Sena- 
tor. District Attorney for the four Western Counties of 
Massachusetts. 

Horatio Gates Newcomb, son of Hezekiah New- 
comb, of Bernard^ton. Studied Law with John Barrett, 
Northfield— with Judge Newcomb, and in Connecticut. 
Adm. 1813. Practised Law, at W T inch<mdon and at 
Northfield and in this town since 1827. Received hon. 
degree of A. M. Williams Coll. 

Justice Willard, son of Reuel Willard. Grad. D. Coll. 

* Horace, a Roman writer, in his Art of Poetry, sup- 
poses the case of a painter forming a design of uniting 
a horse's neck to a human head and spreading a variety 
of plumage over limbs of different animals taken from 
every part of nature, so that what was a beautiful woman 
in the upper parts should terminate in an ugly fish below. 
The union here proposed would be as natural, as to ex- 
pect a man to succeed in a profession every way uncon- 
genial to his feelings, especially of one of unconquerable 
diffidence and inclined to despondency and depression of 
mind. Parents should not choose professions for their 
children ; they should choose for themselves. 



168 HISTORY OP 

1811. Studied with E. Alvord and Judge Newcomb. 
Adm. 1814. Settled at Springfield. Senator. Register 
of Probate. 

Flavel Griswold, son of-Theophilus Griswold. Grad. 
Yale Coll. 1821. Some time Minister at South Hadlc 
Falls. 

Samuel Wells, son of Col. Samuel Wells. Grad. D. 
Coll. 1813. Studied with Judge Leavitt. Adm. 1816. 
Removed to Northampton. Clerk of the Courts in 
Hampshire County. 

Joseph P. Allen, son of Samuel C. Allen, New Sa- 
lem. Grad. D. Coll. 1813. Adm. 1816. Practised 
in Bernardston, here, and at Charlemont. 

David Briorham, Shrewsbury. Grad. Harv. Coll. 
Removed to Fitchburg. 

Charles Baker, Conway. Studied with Daniel Wells. 

Jonathan Ashley Saxton, son of Rufus Saxton, Deer- 
field. Grad. Harv. Coll. 

Henry Chapman, son of Thomas Chapman. Studied 
with Judge Newcomb. Adm. 1826. Hon. degree of 
A. M. Williams Coll. Several years Representative. 

Allen Clay Morgan, son of Alexander Morgan. Wash- 
ington Coll. Minister of the Episcopal Church, Con- 
necticut. 

Francis Dana Newcomb, son of Judge Newcomb. 
Grad. West Point Academy. Lieutenant U. S. A. 
Baton Rouge. 

George Ripley, son of Jerom Ripley. Grad. Harv. 
1823. Tutor 1824. He received in two instances the 
second Bowdoin prize. Studied at the Divinity School, 
Cambridge. Minister of the Purchase street Church, 
Boston. 

Almon Brainard, Randolph, Vermont. Grad. Hamil- 
ton Coll. New Yor!;. Admitted 1829. 

James Church Alvord, son of Elijah Alvord. Grad. 
D. Coll. 1827. Studied with Daniel Wells, and at 
Law School New Plaven, Adm. 1830. Senator in 
1837—8. 



GREENFIELD. 169 

Joseph Warren Newcorr b, son of Richard E. New- 
comb. Grad. Williams Coll. 1825. Studied with his 
father, and Newton & Lincoln, Worcester. Practised 
at Templeton, Salisbury and Worcester. 

Charles C. Corss, son of Asher Corss. Grad. Amh. 
Coll. 183 — . Studied at Divinity School, Princeton, 
N. J. Now of Athens, N. Y. 

George Thomas Davis, son of Wendell Davis, Sand- 
wich, Barnstable Co. Grad. Harv. Coll. 1S29. Studied 
with Wells & Alvord, and at Law fcchool, Cambridge, 
Adm. 1832. 

David Aiken, Bedford, N. H. Grad. Dart. Coll. 
1830. Studied with Wells & Alvord. Adm. 1833. 

Charles Ripley, son of T. W. Ripley. Grad. D. C. 
1835. Louisville, Kentucky. 

Daniel Wells Alvord, son of E. Alvord. Union Coll. 
N. Y. 1838. 

Wendell Thornton D^vis, son of the late Hon. W. 
Davis. Harv. Coll. 1838. 

George Ashrnun, son of Eli P. Asbmun, Northampton. 
Harv. Coll. 1S23. Studied with D miel Wells. Adm. 
1826. Springfield. Senator in 1837—8. 

Physicians. — Zerhariah Converse, Killingly, Conn, 
died suddenly in 1790, of apoplexy. Dr. Newton said 
of him — " A man who had been capable of doing good, 
and peculiar for his contentment with small things — and 
refraining from resentful, reviling language and conduct 
towards mankind."— Dr. Caldwell. Dr. White. Ed- 
ward Billing, Grad. Harv. Coll. 1775. Joshua Rugg. 

John Stone, son of Capt John Stone, of Rutland. 
Born 1763. Studied with Dr. J. Frmk. Came here 
in 1787, and continued in practice here, except a short 
time in New York, till 1819, when he removed to Pro- 
vidence, and soon after to Springfield, where, as here, 
his practice was extensive. Died Sept. 1838, set. 75. 
His remains were entombed here. Distinguished for 
*15 



170 HISTORY or 

his personal accomplishments as a man, and his ability 
and usefulness as a physician. 

Alpheus Fletcher Stone, son of Capt. John Stone. 
Studied with Dr. John Stone, and commenced business 
here in 1805. Hon. degree of M. D. Williams College. 

Seth Washburn, native of Leicester. Studied with 
Dr. Flint, Northampton. Died January 1825, aged 34 — 
much respected as a man, and for his skill as a physi- 
cian. 

Amariah Brigham, a native of Berkshire County. 
Commenced practice here in 1821. Removed to Hart- 
ford 1831. Author of several medical works. 

Helaz Alvord. South Hadley and Montague. Re- 
moved here in 1827. Died in 1S29, aged 38. 

Stephen Bates, son of Dr. Bates, Charlemont. Grad. 
Williams Coil. 1826. Studied with Hunt and Barrett, 
Northampton, and at Jefferson College, Philadelphia. 
M. D. at the same. Commenced practice here in 1831. 

James Deane, son of C. Deane, Colerain. Studied 
with A. W. Ivee, New York city. Med. Grad. Uni- 
versity of the State of New York, 1831. Received the 
hon. degree of A. M. from Amherst Coll. 1838. Com- 
menced practice here 1831. 

Francis Dana, Cambridge. Grad. Harv. Coll. Com- 
menced practice here in 1831. Removed to Boston 
1834. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Notice of the Early Traders — Newsjoapers — Schools — 
Stages — Banks — Factories — Scenery — Witches — 
Turner's Falls — Society, fyc. 

Samuel Bliss, of Boston, built the store on the corner* 
now occupied by E. W. Kingsley and others. Not 
favoring the Revolution, he joined the British, and was 
made a Captain. He was included among the outlawed 



GREENFIELD. 171 

in 1778. Their first return was punishable by trans- 
portation to the British dominions : the second with 
death. George Grennell, Saybrook, Connecticut, was 
his successor in business. 

Reuel and Beriah Willard, Shrewsbury, came about 
the year 1770. Samuel Field, Deerfield. William 
Moore, Rutland. 

Jerom Ripley, Hingham. Removed to this town 
from Boston in 1789. Mrs. Ripley is a native of Bos- 
ton, and descendant of Benjamin Franklin. Mr. R. 
buiit the house and store he now occupies in 1790. For 
half a century or more has this venerable man stood be- 
hind the counter : more years, probably, than any other 
individual in New England, whose integrity, like the 
virtue of Caesar's wife, was never even suspected : of 
whose virtue and uprightness a long course of years 
leaves no question ; who never took from any man the 
ten thousandth part of a fraction unjustly ; a living and 
eminent example of the beneficial effects of steady in- 
dustry and perseverance in one calling, and of minding 
one's own business and letting others alone. A change 
has passed over all who have stood around him. More 
than eighty persons have been concerned in trade in 
this town, from the time he began. He has been a Jus- 
tice of the Peace near fifty years, a Representative, and 
one of the Justices of the Court of Sessions. If all these 
facts make it invidious to speak of the living, then be it 

60. 

A few others of the early traders, were, Samuel Field, 
E. Upham, Caleb Alvord, and Abner Smead. Joseph 
Taylor and John E. Hall, Middletown, C. Samuel 
Pierce, do. Daniel Forbes, William Forbes, Brookfield. 
Hart Leavitt, Calvin Munn, Thomas Dickman, Newton 
& Green, O. Wilkinson. Norton & Bird, Simsbury, C. 
John Russell, Abner Wells. David Ripley, Hingham, 
died 1S36, universally respected. Drugs and Medicines, 
Edward Billings. Marble— Dix, Brinley, C. Clapp. 



172 HISTORY OF 

Manufactories. — The Satinelt Factory of N. E. 
Russell & Co. at Fall river, employs a largt* capital and 
numerous hands. The building first used was burnt, in 
Nov. 1829. Loss estimated at about $30,000. A spa- 
cious stone building now supplies its place. A large 
amount of prime quality cloths are annually turned off. 

The Cutlery Works of J. Russell, Jun. & Co. 
first established in this town, were- burnt down in 1836, 
and since rebuilt, on Green river, a few rods beyond the 
south line of the town, within the bounds of Deerfield, 
are much enlarged, and calculated for an extensive busi- 
ness. Superior cutlery of various kinds, is manufac- 
tured. 

Note. Fires. Besides the fires referred to, there 
have bfen the house of Col. Gilbert, T. Chapman, shop 
of W. Wilson, R. E. Field— and in 1826, 8 buildings- 
house of A. Clark, and Mrs. Munn ; shops of Clay & 
Field, D. Long, A. Ames, &c. 

Newspapers. — The first newspaper printed in this 
part of the country was established here by Thomas 
Dickman, a native of Boston, in Febr.jary 1793, who 
served his time with Benjamin Edes & Son. It was 
called the Impartial Intelligencer. He had at first 800 
subscribers, but the number soon increased to 1600. 
The name was soon after changed to that of Greenfield 
Gazette. It was afterwards for a time printed by Fran- 
cis Barker, and from 1802 to 1810 by John Deuio. 
From that period under the title of the Traveller, Herald 
and Advertiser, &c. by Col. Ansel Phelps, a native of 
Northampton. The Gazette printed by J. Denio and 
Aianson Clark (Northampton) in 1825, united with the 
Herald in 1827. Franklin Federalist, by Russell Wells, 
1816, (discontinued.) Franklin Post and Christian 
Freeman, 1825, removed to Northampton and discon- 
tinued. Freedom's Sentinel, by Alonzo Rawson, (dis.) 
Franklin Freeman, by J. P. Fogg, 1831. Franklin 
Mercury, by G. T. Davis ; united with the Gazette 1837. 



GREENFIELD. 173 

Workingman's Advocate, 1836, by J. M. Campbell, 
(dis.) Greenfield Courier, by Kneelaud & Eastman. 
1838. 

When Mr. Dickman's paper was first published, 
newspapers were procured for him by a company who 
sent to Springfield every week. A Post Office was 
soon alter established, and he was appointed Postmaster, 
which office he held till l. w 04, when the present Post- 
master, Capt. A. Arnes, was appointed. 

Mails and Stages. — A notice was published in 1792 
by T. Pickering, Postmaster General, for contracts for 
carrying a mail from Springfield to Brattlebom, once a 
week : to leave Springfield Mon. 1 o'clk. A. M. air. at 
B. 5 P. M. next day : leave B. next Sat. noon, arr. at S. 
9 A. M. next Mon. From Brattleboro to Hanover once 
a week. For every hour's delay one dollar fine. In 
1796 a stage was run from Hartford to Brattleboro 
three times a week, during five months of the year — 
remainder twice, by R. Sikes, and others. 

About the year 1806, a stage commenced running 
every other day from Hartford to Brattleboro, as now, 
to which is recently added a daily line up and down, 
both by Chapin & Deming, J. Spencer and others. 

The mail hither from Boston, for a few years previous 
to 1809, was brought once a week on horseback. In 
1810 in a covered carriage, by John Phelps, and soon 
after to Albany. About the year 1817, every other day 
to Boston and Albany, and for several years past, by 
different routes, every day to both, and to Worcester 
Rail Road. 

Schools. — The High School for the instruction of 
Young Ladies was established in 1828, since which it 
has flourished under the care of the Rev. Henry Jones, 
of Hartford, C. and Graduate of Yale College in 1820. 
The course of study, comprising all branches of a female 
education, is systematic and apparently as complete aa 



174 HISTORY OF 

could be devised or desired, with an instructor to each 
department. So powerful is the influence of females 
upon society, and so almost entirely dependant is the 
happiness of the other sex, upon their good or ill education; 
so enduring is that of the mother upon those entrusted to 
her care, that the importance of that education, which 
should begin at home, and afterwards continue to be of 
a domestic character, that it cannot be measured or 
weighed by any measure or s"ale hitherto exis'ing even 
in fancy. Refined manners will in general be duly esti- 
mated : a certain undefinable delicacy of mind and 
thought, arising from a proper education, can alone give 
that true dignity and grace, which place woman where 
6he should be, but a little lower than the angels ; with 
which mere personal beauty is no more to be compared, 
than the meanest insect which sports in the sunbeam to 
the glorious luminary itself. 

The situation of the buildings is elevated and beauti- 
ful, and probably surpassed by no other for convenience. 
The eye of the traveller, especially coming from the 
south, rests with pleasure upon these buildings, and from 
(he School itself a prospect is spread out before and un- 
der the eye, of sloping hills and mountains, meadow and 
vale and stream, overlooking the windings of Green 
river, as picturesque and pleasing as it often rests upon 
or can desire. 

An Institution for the education of females in all 
the branches usually taught in High Schools, has recently 
been opened by the Misses Stone, daughters of Dr. 
A. F. Stone, (who are experienced and well qualified 
instructors*) — in a pleasant and commodious situation 
and with a suitable building. This school promises 
much usefulness. 

No. of Public Schools, 7 ; No. of Scholars of all ages 
in all the Schools, in Winter, 317 ; in Summer, 278 ; 
average attendance in the Schools in Winter, 253; in 
Summer, 21S ; No. of persons between the ages of 4 
and 16 years of age in the town, 494 ; aggregate length 



GREENFIELD. 175 

of the Schools, 61 months, in Winter, 26, in Summer, 35; 
No. of Teachers in Summer, Males, 0, Females, 7; 
No. of Teachers in Winter, Males 4, Females, 4 ; ave- 
rage wages paid per month including board, to Males, 
$23 40, to Females, $12 88 ; amount of money raised 
by Taxes for the support ot Schools, $ 800 CO ; amount 
raised by Taxes for Teachers' wages, including board, 
if paid from the public money, $750 00 ; amount raised 
voluntarily to prolong common schools, including fuel 
and board, if contributed, $300 00; No. of Academies 
or Private Schools, 2 ; aggregate of months kept, 24 ; 
aggregate of Scholars, 60 ; aggregate paid for tuition, 
$1,500 00. 



GREENFIELD BANK. Incorporated 1822. 

Capital, $150,000. 

William Pomroy, President. 

Franklin Ripley, Cashier. 



SAVINGS INSTITUTION. Incor. 18S4. 

E. Alvord, Pres. F. Ripley, Treas. 

T. O. Sparhawk, Sec. 

Amount deposited to 1st January, 1838, $6,120 57. 

No. of Depositors 70. 



MUTUAL INSURANCE CO. Incorporated 1829. 

H. G. Newcomb, Pres. A. Brainard, Sec. 

No. of Policies issued, 1000. Amount Insured, 4 to 

$ 500,000. 



Scenery. — The Falls, &c. — Our vicinity makei 
no claim to scenery of a very striking character, except- 
ing the views to be had at the Fulls, the Glen, and one 
or two others, which may Le called so. One thing if 
very certain, that these falls, and the scenery about them, 
•re far less known, noticed and spoken of, in story and 



176 HISTORY OF 

in song, than their wild and romantic character seems 
to deserve, and are less visited than others of a similar 
description. To most in this vicinity they have been 
familiar from infancy, and therefore little regarded. 
There are no Lakes to give beauty to this section of 
country, yet from a short distance above the falls, thence 
ascending for two or three miles, are many places where 
the river, spreading wide out before you, the overhang- 
ing, dark woods, the wild and imposing solitude, occa- 
sionally only broken by the oars of the boat and rafts- 
men, there being no dwellings near, may give it some 
similitude of a lake among the woods, especially to one 
a little tinctured with the romantic. This is a favorite 
resort of the wild duck, heron, loon, bittern, crane, eagle, 
who are often seen on its banks and waters. — The roar 
of the water, rolling and tumbling over the great dam 
at misty morn and dewy eve, is often heard at a consi- 
derable distance. This was formerly a place of great 
resort during the fishing season, and especially on Elec- 
tion day, when a full assortment with a great variety of 
people of both sexes and all ages and colors might be 
found there ; black, white, yellow and grey ; the musio 
of the viol and dancing; gambling in all its forms; in 
fine, dissipation of every sort. Shad and Salmon were 
taken in abundance, and the time was when shad were 
taken 1000 at a haul and sold for a penny apiece. 

These Falls have taken the name of Turner, from 
a battle fought there in 1676, by Capt. Turner, and a 
party of Indians, are situated between this town, Gill, 
and Montague, and are the most interesting waterfalls 
in New England. The dam erected here for the 
canal, originally erected in part by capitalists from Hol- 
land, is about 1000 feet long, resting near the centre 
upon two small islands. Over the dam the water leaps 
more than thirty feet perpendicular, and for a mile con- 
tinues descending rapidly, and foaming along its course. 
An hundred rods below, the stream strikes directly 
against a lofty Greenstone ridge, (rocky mountain,) 



GREENFIELD. 17? 

when it changes its course towards the south, near 
a quarter of a circle. 

From the elevated ground on the Gill shore, the cata- 
ract may be seen to good advantage : the islands bolow 
with their trees and shrubs : the lofty wood covered 
ridge to the right : the dam and rocks and tumbling 
waters below : canal opposite : the placid expanse of 
water above : with its scenery and forest of pir.es be- 
yond ; near you, a little north, the stone Factory of 
N. E. Russell & Co. and its village, on Fall river, 
form altogether, a picturesque and highly romantic 
prospect, worth an hundred miles ride to look upon. In 
high water, the view approaches the grand and sublime. 
Rafts, and boats heavily loaded, pass the canal in con- 
siderable numbers, from far up and down the river, 
leaving annually from 1)000 to $14,000 in tolls. 

Something more than a mile below the falls is an 
island connected with the Eastern shore by a low natural 
dam of rock about 200 feet long. This and the sur- 
rounding country, taking in nearly the whole town of 
Montague, with its five miles extent of Hark ever green 
plains of pine, with a beautiful prospect of the town of 
Greenfield, and the neighboring hilts, to the west, though 
not extensive, rarely equalled, may be had from the 
rocky ridge or mountain alluded to, which borders the 
village on the East, presenting a rude and ru<:ged, yet 
bold and romantic aspect, of trees and rock. Veins of 
copper are found on this ridge, and the Geologist here 
finds a rich subject. 

One old gentleman, Mr. B. has always maintained 
a mysterious air and conversation on the subject of the 
mines and minerals of this mountain and its vicinity, 
and Kidrl's money, others have seaiched with mineral 
rods and witch hazel. 

There were formerly a number of sawmills on Fall 

river, and Noith East, as the factory viifaoe was once 

called, was much resorted to for Lumber. A great 

number of logs were left by the spring floods, before 

16 



178 HISTORY OP 

they were sent by the canal, and previous to (he lumber- 
men passing down to set thorn adrift, were easily taken 
possession of, and converted into boards and shingles, 
which knew not the right owners nor whence they came. 
It is said that a considerable business was carried on in 
this way. 

Scarce half a century ago, there were many in that 
vicinity, who believed in witches. One old Lady resi- 
ding there, Mrs. Thatcher, was certainly supposed to he 
one, and she told fortunes occasionally. One neighbor 
bad a calf bewitched : a female named Dewey, fre- 
quently screamed out violently in the night, and when 
her friends went to see what ailed her she was found in 
profuse perspiration and wet as if just taken from the 
river : this continued — she was taken to be bewitched, 
and removed to Montague where she died. 

There was formerly a Grist mill at this place, and a 
fulling mill occupied by Ezekiel Bascom,* who lived in 
the village ; and was a man of strong mind and much 
thought of. One night when he slept at the Falls, a 
horse shoe came into his room and performed various 
evolutions, and though a resolute and determined man, 
he so far yielded to superstitious feeling as never to lodge 
there again. A horse shoe was nailed up at the mill to 
keep off* witches. It was pretended that the mill wheels 
sometimes stopped and could not be induced to go : Mr. 
B-nton's cattle and carl stopped in the road without his 
being able to make them go : he said he heard female 
voices under the cart : a fox soon came out from under 
it : the cattle went on again and all was well. In 
fine, North East was a sort of enchanted ground ; the 
residence of witches and hobgoblins, and furnished forth 
many stories for the credulous. 






* The family of Bascom was from Northampton, and 
always held a very respectable standing. Moses Bascom, 
Esq. Grandfather of Mr. Dorus Bascom, bought lands 
now belonging to the family in 1761, at 40 cts. the acre. 
Of 400 acres, the highest he paid was 4s. 



GREENFIELD. 179 

Society. — From the number of Religious societies 
existing in a town so small, a stranger might suppose 
the peopie to be divided in feelings and sympathies and 
prone to contention. Social intercourse is not affected 
by these divisions, although in some small degree bound- 
ed by parish lines. If narrowness and bigotry exist, 
they are confined to the narrow minded. A good slato 
of feeling seems to prevail universally. The town is 
composed of as virtuous and intelligent a population as 
can be found anywhere, and no people are more ready 
to contribute liberally to every laudable public or chari- 
table object. As for those who esteem themselves per- 
fect, and despise others, " In self adoring pride securely 
mailed," we wish them more humility, and hope to give 
a better account of them in our fiftieth edition. 



And now, Reader, a word at parting. It will soon, 
very soon be of little moment to you end to me and 
to all who enjoy the privilege of looking upon this beau- 
tiful earth and the garniture thereof; upon the splendid 
luminaries above and all the planets and stars revolving 
in their spheres : upon the faces of men, and to the 
voices of loved ones — oft 

' Listening, as the mariner suspends the outbound oar, 
To taste the farewell gale that blows from off his native 
shore — ' 

whether we were rich or poor, exalted or lowly, honored 
or neglected ; the stream of time which ebbs not, is fast 
wafting us into the interminable ocean of Eternity, and 

Note. The families by thenamc of Russell, are supposed 
to be the descendants of Rev. John Russell, who removed 
from Weathersfield, Connecticut, in 1642, to Hadley, 
and was installed there, and who concealed Goffe and 
Whalley, two of the Judges of King Charles I. of Eng- 
land. 



180 HISTORY OF 

while we are dreaming of honors or spending our time 
in trifles, we are fast approaching that shoreless ocean ; 
a few paces more and we are embarked upon its waters — 
see to it that the Pilot, chart, and compass are on board, 
and be able to say, l< I have no cause to fear, my 
father's at the helm ." Reader, Farewell. 



INADVERTENT OMISSIONS. 

The following should have been placed in the list of 
Lawyers and Graduates who have resided here. 

Elisha Hunt Allen, son of Hon, S. C. Allen, Grad. 
Williams Coil. Studied Law with his father. Admitted 

. Practised here. Removed to Bangor, Maine. 

Representative. Speaker of H. of R. of Maine. 

Frederick H. Allen, son of Hon. S. C. Allen. Grad. 
Burlington Coll. Vermont. Studied with his father. 

Adm. . Practised at New Salem. Removed to 

Bangor, Maine. 

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